


The Solace of Family

by Daily



Series: A bond of family [17]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, BAMF Lily Evans Potter, BAMF Sirius Black, Bromance, Canonical Character Death, Families of Choice, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Character Death, Sibling Bonding, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, Young Marauders, Young Sirius Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27300688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daily/pseuds/Daily
Summary: When her whole world collapses, Lily finds solace in her newfound family. And no matter what life throws at them, she knows they stand together.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Series: A bond of family [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/61511
Comments: 48
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Strong bromance, can’t stomach boys and girls being extremely close without it being sexual, then this is not the story or series for you and you should hit the return button.
> 
> This story contains death of parents and the consequences of that and might be triggering. 
> 
> Special thanks to my dear friend Kitty for her willingness to both beta my stories and her endless patience to improving my grammar and teach me exactly where I’m going wrong so I can learn. I hope you know that you’re the best!

It was bright but cold when Lily made her way from Potions to the Great Hall for an early lunch; letting the sounds of other students wash over her as the tense students discussed the latest attack among themselves, but Lily tuned them out when she noticed Peter coming towards her.

“Peter, have you seen James?”

“I think he had to do some Head Boy stuff for McGonagall,” as the mousy-haired boy came closer, she immediately picked up on the faint stench of dung bombs. “Sirius should know more about it.”

“And where is Sirius?” Making sure to subtly keep her distance, she watched as Peter debated internally for a moment before he indicated she should follow him as he ducked into an unused classroom.

“Let’s find out,” he pulled out a blank piece of parchment when she closed the door; whispering something she couldn’t quite catch and she automatically moved closer as the piece of parchment began to light up, revealing a map of Hogwarts.

Marvelling at the details revealing themselves, Lily watched in awe as dozens of little dots appeared, all having miniscule names attached to them and moving around as if the people themselves were moving around. Noticing a dot with her own name on it, she realised it was a true replica of Hogwarts as her dot was shown to be in an unused classroom together with a dot labelled Peter Pettigrew.

“That’s amazing, where did you find this?”

“We made it,” Peter scanned the map. “Well, Sirius drew the design, but we all charmed it.”

“Incredible, what kind of charm allowed you to even locate ghosts?” She noticed the Bloody Baron moving on the fifth floor.

“I’m not sure, it’s something Sirius came up with back in first year and he combined it with a Homonculus Charm to make them appear on the map.”

“And it always shows everyone?”

“Yeah, you’d have to ask Sirius or James the specifics behind each spell, but it basically shows everyone within reach of the map’s parameters.”

“Remarkable.”

“Thanks. I can’t find James, but Sirius is in the basement near the kitchens,” tapping the map, Lily leaned closer to see Sirius’ dot was accompanied by the dots of Peeves and Tiffy. “It looks like he’s staying put so if you go now, you shouldn’t miss him even if he decided to leave.”

“Right, thank you.”

“If you’re going to him anyway, would you mind giving him the map? I’ve got detention with Filch in a bit, but I’ve been banned from the dorm for several hours so I can’t go put it away.”

“Sure.”

Nodding, Peter tapped his wand to the map. “Mischief Managed.”

The map disappeared again, leaving behind a blank piece of parchment once more and he handed it over so she pocketed it safely.

“Oh, and would you pass on the message that I’ve gotten detention?”

“Of course, is it for the Dungbombs?” Following him out of the classroom, she walked with him.

“I might’ve set of a Dungbomb or two,” he grinned guiltily. “My cousin sent me a few and I knew I couldn’t keep them in the dorm so used them immediately.”

“Which is also why you’ve been banned from the dorm, because the others wouldn’t be able to enter any more,” no doubt even the faint lingering smell would be enough to make both Sirius and Remus nauseous due to their canine status.

“Exactly, Remus told me that I’m to walk around, get a decent amount of fresh air and take a dip in the Lake before I’d be allowed back in to even take a shower.”

“I can’t blame them, if I can detect the smell, I don’t even want to know how badly they must be affected.”

I know,” he told her solemnly. “But I’ll see you later.”

“Later,” watching him hurry towards Filch’s office, Lily turned to make her way to the basement; pausing as she spotted Sirius enter the corridor leading to the Great Hall; picking up her pace to meet him and he paused to let her catch up as he noticed her.

“Hello...oh,” his smile vanished as he took a step backwards; telling her she’d caught some of Peter’s stench. “I see you’ve seen Peter?”

“Yes, he asked me to tell you that he’s gotten detention and if I would pass this on to you,” pulling out the map, she tried to hand it over, but as he swiftly stepped back while raising his hand to cover his nose, she realised the map was the source of the stench and quickly cast a modified Ventus Charm to subtly air out both the map and her own clothing.

“Thanks, your wandless casting really has improved,” he complimented as he took the map from her, giving it a slight sniff before pocketing it with an approving hum. “I assume Peter’s shown you what it is?”

“A little, he told me to ask you for specifics if I wanted to know more. But I’m more curious to how good your nose is.”

“Too good sometimes,” he slipped a hand in hers as they began to make their way to the Great Hall. “It’s completely unfair by the way.”

“How so?”

“James is supposed to have the best nose of us all, but he’s untroubled by most things. He was the only one of us who could tolerate being even close to Peter this morning.”

“Wait, why would James have the best nose of you all? You two are the canines,” keeping her voice down as they were nearing the Great Hall, she entwined their fingers together.

“Deer need to have a great sense of smell and hearing to notice predators coming in time to get away. Most deer species have better noses than even bloodhounds so it’s completely unfair the trait hasn’t crossed over for him.”

“Maybe you’re just more in touch with your inner self?” She half teased, laughing as he shot her a mock glare and led them to their house table to take a seat beside Remus, who was doing homework.

“We’ve been experimenting with our range and abilities when not transformed, but I can’t give you a proper answer as to why there is a clear difference,” he leaned over Remus’ shoulder to look at his work. “You’re mistaking Necromancy for Shamanism.”

“What?” Distractedly, Remus looked over his parchment. “It’s Necromancy, isn’t it?”

“Not when it’s summoning spirits and ghosts without the intent to bring them back to a body.”

“Right,” tapping his parchment, the letters automatically changed themselves before he handed it over. “Can you check it over properly? And just for the record, I hate this subject.”

“It is wise to teach the students about Inferi, especially given that there have been several reports of Voldemort using them in his attacks,” accepting the parchment, Sirius rolled it out to read it over.

“I know, I know,” sighing, Remus ran a hand through his hair. “But just the thought of those things is nauseating.”

“It is,” Lily agreed. “You should clean up, it’s almost time for lunch.”

Quickly putting away his books, Remus glanced around. “Where are James and Peter?”

“Peter’s got detention with Filch for those Dungbombs he set off and I was actually hoping Sirius could tell me where James is.”

“Heir business, he told you about it last week.”

“That’s these two weeks?” Her memory jogged, she remembered her boyfriend having told her about the series of Wizengamot trials he was forced to sit in on as the Heir to the House of Potter and other responsibilities.

“Dad picked him up this morning and he probably won’t be back until next Friday,” rolling up the parchment, Sirius handed it back over. “You mixed Isobel Gowdie with Ursula Southeil but there is no record of either of them having ever tried to call upon Inferi. That was Anne Ewing.”

“Ursula Southeil?”

“You probably know her under the name Mother Shipton, she was a famous seer. Even Muggles went to her to get their fortunes told and she’s one of the very few known witches who was never convicted or even put on trial,” Sirius told him.

“Then who was Isobel Gowdie?” Lily asked.

“A famous Squib who spun tell-tales to Muggles and was tried as a witch despite not actually having any powers. She caused the Auldearn witch trials in which seven innocent women were strangled and burned at the stake; including her accomplice Janet Breadhead and actual witch Margaret Brodie.”

“Right….and how do you know that?”

“Common knowledge,” Sirius leaned back as food appeared on the tables; signalling lunch had begun and he reached for a piece of toast before choking on a laugh as he caught their perplexed expressions. “Pandora and I spent a week or two in Muggle libraries last year to look up books about witchcraft and witch trials.”

“Why in Merlin’s name would you do that?”

“Because when we were preparing these essays we wondered about Muggle history concerning magical folks and if there might be other famous people who were actually magical known in their history. It was interesting to compare the names known to Muggles to our own historical records and see if there might be more to a story.”

“Interesting to pour through Merlin knows how many books?”

“Yes, it’s both interesting and terrifying to read about the panic that kept spreading throughout Muggle history at the mere idea of magic and how many innocent people were brutally murdered in scam trials.”

“Sometimes I wonder about what goes through that head of yours,” shaking his head, Remus grabbed some bacon. “And Anne Ewing was a dark witch?”

“Wait, Anne Ewing actually was a witch?” Lily asked surprised, only now registering the name Sirius had mentioned before.

“You know her?”

“We’ve had to read about her in history class when I was younger,” she explained. “According to my history book she was a fraud who led dozens of innocent women to their deaths in the sixteenth century, following the example of Margaret Aiken.”

“They were both fairly untalented dark witches who took the mass hysteria about witchcraft boiling up again to cause the deaths of hundreds of innocent Muggles in witch trials.”

“How did they manage that?” Curious, Remus leaned closer, plate of food all but forgotten and he wasn’t the only one listening in on their conversation as most of the table was suspiciously quiet. “Did they use magic to convince the witch hunters?”

“The records didn’t seem to think so. They said she was one of the very few actual witches to have been captured and used the opportunity to condemn as many Muggles as she could find by claiming she could see a special mark in their eyes.”

“A special...how would that work?”

“Very simple, just look at the women who are the most terrified and it’s unlikely they’ll be actual witches.”

“That’s terrible!”

“It is, but she was eventually discovered as a fraud, though,” Lily said. “Some prosecutor was sceptical of her abilities and brought forth previously accused women the next day once more, only to them be declared innocent. I had no idea she was actually a witch, though.”

“What did they do with her, then? Because if she was a witch, they wouldn’t have been able to burn her at the stake, right?” Remus asked.

“Story goes that a few good witches worked together to cast Fiendfyre to ensure she would die for her crimes,” it was Pandora who answered as she slipped in between Remus and Sirius and stole his buttered piece of toast. “Spectators claimed the fires of hell claimed her wicked soul and after her death the witch trials stopped for some time.”

“Right,” blinking a little dazzled, Remus scribbled some notes onto his parchment while Pandora bit into Sirius’ piece of toast; nearly swallowing half of it in one go and, undeterred, Sirius reached for a new piece.

“Hungry?” Raising his eyebrow, Lily watched as Pandora swallowed the other half of the toast before gratefully accepting the new piece Sirius had prepared for her.

“Starving. I’ve spend the last double hour in the company of slimy Slytherins thinking they’re funny.”

“You would think you’d be completely turned from food for the moment in that case,” amused, Remus watched Sirius hand over a third piece even through she was making a slice herself. “Are you going to eat anything yourself?”

“I’m feeding him,” waving him off, Pandora held up her finished piece to Sirius and, indulging her, he bit into it before taking the rest from her. “And I’m hungry because I spend most of the time laughing my arse off because Yu-Yan mentioned how she looked forward to see Siri’s reaction at them making fun of me.”

“That’ll do the trick to get them to back off.”

“So, how is your Defence essay going?”

“How….” shaking his head, Remus laughed. “It’s nearly finished, Sirius was just looking it over.”

“Which led to your conversation about dark witches.”

“Still haven’t clarified how Ewing tried to use Inferi, though,” Lily pointed out, dipping her spoon into her porridge.

“She tried to raise an army of Inferi from the victims she caused, but because she was not powerful enough to control the magic she was attempting, the Inferi turned on her and ate her. Local Muggles witnessing the horrific scene were wise enough to put the lot of them on fire and managed to destroy them with minimum casualties.”

“So they got lucky. I still can’t believe anyone would willingly make Inferi...I mean, how twisted must your mind be to even think of doing such a thing?” Shivering, Lily rubbed her arms.

“There are seriously messed up people in the world,” Pandora readily agreed while Sirius wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

“At least we know how to defend ourselves against them,” he tried to comfort her and nodding, she leaned against him for a moment.

“What class do we have after lunch?” The attempt to change the subject wasn’t subtle, but they went with it without argument.

“Transfiguration, so we’re all together.”

“Transfiguration, are you joining us today?” The brown-haired boy turned to Sirius, who nodded.

“Nice, any idea what we’ll be covering today?”

“I assume we’ll continue with human transfiguration as not everyone’s succeeded yet,” Pandora answered as she collected several pieces of fruit and handed everyone their favourites.

“Thanks, so it’ll just be revision for us since we’ve already passed,” putting away the apple, Remus looked awfully cheerful not to have to resume practice, making Lily need to suppress a grin as she knew he absolutely hated this subject.

“I don’t know, we might practice a little more,” Lily decided to tease him a little, making Pandora laugh.

“Yes, maybe we can turn you into a slug,” she directed at Remus, whose expression immediately shifted into alarm though Lily couldn’t blame him even as she knew the Ravenclaw was joking.

She had no idea what kind of disastrous results human transfiguration might have on werewolves and as a precaution for these lessons, McGonagall had taken him aside for private practice before bringing the two dark-haired Marauders in on it so they’d know just how to transfigure their friend without risk exposing his secret or endangering anyone else.

It was just plain luck that the Marauders usually worked with a permanent buddy system between them so no one thought twice about why Remus was always flanked by James or Sirius during these lessons; most just assuming both Remus and Peter to be disastrous in Transfiguration to need the constant supervision, even if it wasn’t true at all.

But Pandora didn’t know Remus’ secret and as such, would thoughtlessly make these kind of jokes without having any idea what kind of terror they brought to Remus’ overimaginative mind.

“Actually, I’d like to practice your Occlumency a little more while the rest revises,” Sirius saved him. “I’ve already been given permission by McGonagall since you successfully undid your transfiguration repeatedly last week and the classroom is the perfect chaotic scene to practice your concentration.”

“All right,” as Remus picked up a few peppermint humbugs, Pandora startled.

“I almost forgot, Mother send these to me for you,” pulling out a small box from her bag, she handed it over to Sirius.

“A new type of candy?” He pulled out what looked like thin strings of licorice to Lily.

“They’re called toothflossing stringmints,” she told them as Sirius passed them along to all of them. “Apparently they clean your teeth while sucking on them.”

“Ouch, that’s sharp,” wincing, Remus pulled a face and reached for a napkin to spit it out in and although Lily couldn’t say she really liked them either, she could see the benefit from them and soldiered on.

“It’s not that bad,” Sirius put the rest of them into his bag. “Tell your mother thanks for me. But we should get going or we’re going to be late.”

Nodding in agreement, they all rose to their feet and made their way out of the Great Hall.

TBC

XXXXX

Since I don’t start posting stories until I’ve finished them and had my friend look them over, new chapters will be posted once a week between Friday and Sunday. 

Happy Halloween!


	2. Chapter 2

Warning: Detailed description of the injuries and deaths of loved ones, might be triggering.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lily had only just finished undoing the transformation she'd performed on Pandora when suddenly the unmistakable sound of a ringing phone startled them all.

Confused, they all looked around for several moments before Sirius blinked; Remus immediately taking several harsh breaths as Sirius reached into his pocket to pull out the mobile device her father had given him. He had spent weeks trying to modify the huge device into something that was pocket sized and she had been beyond amazed when he had also managed to get it to work properly despite her father’s claim of the technology to be brand new even for Muggles.

His confusion made it clear he didn't recognise the number, and glancing at Remus to ensure he was all right, he rose to his feet. "Sorry Professor, I'll need a moment."

"I though technology didn't work here?" Marlene asked surprised as Sirius answered the call while leaving the classroom.

"I...it doesn't," McGonagall looked utterly perplexed; pulling out her wand to undo everyone's transformations within seconds. "Take out your book and read chapter fifty-two. No magic is to be used while I'm gone."

Briskly she disappeared from the classroom and immediately the students turned to each other while Lily moved to Remus' side. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," pulling out a handkerchief, he rubbed over his sweaty face. "Sirius is relentless."

"James is the same," she winced in sympathy as she'd experienced both boys' methods of teaching and although considerate, they were very thorough and relentless if they thought you weren't trying your hardest. "But it's the best way to learn to defend yourself."

"The times I'm not humiliating myself, that is," choking back a laugh, Remus accepted the glass of water Pandora conjured. "It's a good thing he already knows all my deepest and darkest secrets, because I certainly can't keep him out of my mind for long."

"I know the feeling," grimacing, Lily carefully rubbed his back to help him regain his breathing; looking up when Pandora stiffened.

"You should go to Sirius."

"What? Is he all right?" Tensing, Remus immediately straightened and moved to get up when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Not you, Lily."

"Why me?"

"Please, just go," Pandora wasn't looking at her, eyes fixed on the door and more than a little confused as to what she could possible do to support their friend instead of Remus; she rose to her feet and made her way out of the classroom, quietly closing the door behind her.

It wasn't hard to find Sirius as he was moving back towards the classroom hurriedly; McGonagall nearly running to keep up with his long strides, the expression on his face enough to tell her something was terribly wrong and with her heart hammering in her throat she moved to meet him half way.

"Siri..."

"Your parents were in an accident, we need to move. Tiffy!"

His words stopped her heart and a thousand questions swam through her mind; but before she could even properly wrap her head around his words, Sirius reached for her hand and the little house-elf appeared before them.

"We need to get to Dudley Road Hospital immediately," the fact that he didn't waste time with pleasantries told her it was bad and without comment Tiffy reached out to him; Apparating them despite the protest in the background from McGonagall.

"Lily," the sudden hands tightening on her biceps made her gaze snap up and she stared into Sirius' concerned eyes. "Breathe with me. In...and out, in and out."

Blinking, she struggled to follow his instructions; realising she'd been unable to breathe until now.

"W-what?"

"You need to focus and calm down," his quiet but firm tone told her she had been panicking and she fought to take several deep breaths while pushing her panic and tears down.

"What happened?"

Giving her a critical look, Sirius seemed to determine she had calmed down. "There was an accident involving your parents. I don't know what happened but it's bad."

"We need to get to the hospital," grabbing his arms in return, she had to fight harder to not let blind panic take over again.

"We're in a deserted alley right across of the hospital, we can go right in but you needed to breathe first," taking her hand, he pulled her with him to cross the street.

"Our clothes..."

"Taken care off."

As she glanced down, she noticed that they were indeed both wearing Muggle clothing and suddenly she was beyond grateful he was taking the lead as she couldn't seem to think straight.

He led her into the Emergency area; no hesitation in his steps as he pulled her with him towards a nurse station desk. "We're here for Anna and Victor Evans? We were called that they've been in a car accident?"

The nurse checked her lists before gesturing to the waiting area. "Someone will come get you in a moment."

Nodding, Sirius led her there and as her eye fell onto the people waiting; she suddenly remembered her sister.

"Petunia… oh god...she doesn't….does she know? I don't…." her throat closed up and Sirius quickly pulled her into his arms.

"Shhhh, they couldn't reach her. That's why they called me," holding her close, he gently rubbed her back as she burst into tears.

"She doesn't know and I don't know her number….how can….I…"

"I'll take care of it," he promised softly, holding her close until her tears dried up for the moment and she managed to regain her posture again.

"I'm good….I….I'm good," taking a few shaky breaths, she nodded as he pulled back a little. "We need to reach Petunia, she needs to know."

"I'll take care of it," he promised again; taking her hand to lead her towards a landline phone in the corner to pick up the phone book to begin paging through it.

The action was so utterly Muggle-like that Lily could only stare at him dumbfounded; still trying to wrap her mind on what exactly was happening to understand what he was doing and she startled heavily when he shut it.

"Come, we're being called," holding onto the phone book, he pulled her along again to where a nurse was waiting; obviously having called them without her noticing.

The nurse greeted them gently but there was something wrong with her ears because although the woman's mouth was moving, no sound was coming out. She just knew there was something wrong and didn't understand why she wasn't just being brought to them already. "Where are my parents? I need to see them….where…."

It was the only thing that mattered and she turned to Sirius with wild eyes; stomach turning as she couldn't seem to draw in enough breath again. "Siri...where…..where are…."

But he didn't answer her, only pulling her into his arms again and suddenly she knew without him having to say.

"No…..no no no no no….They're all right, I...they can't….tell me they're all right….Siri please…."

"I can't Lily," his soft voice broke through the haze in her mind, but she didn't want to hear the words.

"No….no!" the need to break free, to find her parents became overwhelming and she slammed her fists into his chest. "Let me go….I need to find them."

"I can't do that," his hold on her was tight, stopping her from breaking free no matter how much she tried to fight until her tears overtook her ability to struggle and she collapsed against him.

"Let me….I need…." his hold on her tightened, securing her in the warmth of his embrace as she sank to her knees; Sirius coming down with her and just held her as she cried.

She had no idea how long they sat there like that, how long she screamed and cried but eventually her tears dried up again as she calmed down.

"I want to see them."

"You can in a minute," he simply told her. "They're almost done."

"Done….done with what?" Numbness settled over her as she leaned into his embrace.

"They're just making them presentable before you're allowed to see them."

"Presentable….why….w-what happened?"

"A drunk driver ran through a red light and hit their car. I'm so sorry, Lily," it was a struggle to focus on his words, but she forced herself to process them.

"I want to see them."

"Then let's go do that," she allowed him to help her up and blindly reached for his hand, only now realising the nurse was still there; guiding the way through a door leading to a long busy corridor until they came to a stop before a door.

"I've arranged for them to be placed in the same room."

Nodding through her forming tears, she hesitated in opening the door. "Can we have some privacy?"

"I should probably have the doctor explain..."

"He's a medic, he can explain any questions I have."

"It isn't really procedure…."

"It's fine, I assume the statuses have been updated?" He cut the nurse of softly and there must have been something in his expression for the nurse to back down, but Lily couldn't be bothered to turn around to check.

"Yes, if you have any questions, just press the alarm or come find me at the nurses' station. I will give you some time," the nurse opened the door for them.

Lily suddenly froze; not sure she truly wanted to see her parents after all.

"I…."

"Do you want me to look first?"

"Y-yes….would you….I..." she couldn't seem to form words, but luckily he seemed to understand her perfectly as he squeezed her hand before opening the door far enough to be able to look through it without her seeing anything.

But at the same time he also didn't let go of her hand and she couldn't even begin to describe how grateful she was for that as she didn't think she could stand there alone.

"It's all right," he turned back moments later; reaching up to cup her face in his warm hands. "They are both covered to their necks with sheets and aside from a few bruises, they don't look bad."

"All right….I ...I'm ready," she took a step forward before faltering again, swallowing thickly to try and force back the new tears forming as she didn't seem capable of doing something as simple as stepping over a threshold.

"I'm with you," Sirius moved to stand before her, walking backwards when she managed to take another step. She wasn't sure what he was doing until she managed to cross the threshold and automatically looked up when the door closed behind them.

Instead of being immediately faced with her parents, Sirius was shielding them from her with his body, allowing her the chance to compose herself without seeing them before she was truly ready for it.

"I'm ready," taking a deep breath and pretty sure she was shattering his hand, she lifted her gaze again as he stepped to the side.

She wasn't sure what she had prepared herself for, not even having been able to imagine anything; but she was still surprised to see her mother looked like she was sleeping and she might've been able to fool herself into thinking that, if there hadn't been for the unnatural paleness of her skin.

Stepping forward, her free hand automatically reached for her mother while her other hand clenched around Sirius' to ensure he would not let go. "Did she suffer?"

She wanted to say more, explain what she meant; but before she could form the words to do so, Sirius slipped his wand from it's holster into his free hand.

"She died instantly," his words only moments later made her release a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

"How do you know?"

"Her neck broke in the impact, she wouldn't have had the chance to feel anything."

"Are you sure?" She appreciated his honesty, needing to know exactly what had happened even if she wasn't quite sure why she wanted to know all the details. But Sirius didn't question her motives as he just answered her question and she was glad it was him who was here with her as he had the medical background to give her the information she needed to know.

"Yes," she didn't question his statement further, letting her eyes slide over her mother's still form. "Any other injuries?"

He was quiet for a moment longer as he read over the results the magical scan gave him. "A broken pelvis and a fractured wrist."

Without a word, she moved around her mother's bed to her father's side; pulling Sirius with her as she still couldn't bring herself to let go of his hand.

Her father looked a little less like he'd been sleeping as there were several cuts on his face. "And Dad?"

From the corner of her eye she saw his expression tighten momentarily before he pulled himself together and suddenly she felt like the worst person ever to ask him to do this; she knew he had been friendly with both of her parents and she really shouldn't be asking him this.

But the selfish part of her needed for it to be Sirius who told her so she held her tongue as he examined her father.

"He didn't die instantly, but didn't feel anything," he concluded after a significant longer time had passed.

"How?" She forced back the trembling she could feel wanted to take over her body; focusing instead on what her surrogate brother could tell her.

"He hit his head on the steering wheel; the impact caused a severe brain bleeding but also caused him to lose consciousness immediately."

"He never woke to feel anything?"

"No, it would've been impossible with this type of injury and the bleeding was severe enough that it killed him in minutes," Sirius picked up the status laying on the table, flickering through it.

"What does it say?"

"He was already gone when the paramedics arrived on the scene, there was nothing they could have done."

"Would magic have been able to save them?" She closed her eyes, dreading the answer.

"If a magical person had been right there the instant the accident happened and had known enough Healing magic to recognise the head injury as significant despite the smallness of the actual wound, then maybe," he admitted and relief cut through her numbness as she realised that this was the answer she had needed to know; to know if it would've made a difference if she had been there.

"Could you have saved him?"

"No, I wouldn't have deemed the head injury as significant until it was already too late," he told her honestly and this was why she was grateful he was here with her; because he was one of those people with enough knowledge of Healing magic to know if there would've been any chance her parents could've been saved.

He wouldn't brush off her concerns to spare her feelings but was honest and she now knew her parents couldn't have been saved. For no matter how many magical people there were hiding in Britain; only a select amount knew Healing magic in the first place, let alone enough to have been able to save their lives.

"So they didn't….they..."

"Neither of them suffered," his words broke the dam as she broke down in sobs once more and wordlessly he pulled her into his arms again, letting her cry into his shoulder.

Afterwards, she wouldn't have been able to tell how long she spend with her parents bodies; she was vaguely aware Sirius managed to find Petunia's number in that time but hadn't been able to contact her despite repeated dialling.

Everything kind of washed over her as she fell into a haze and didn't fight it and she only half paid attention as Sirius arranged for her parents to be picked up by a funeral home, collected all the information she would need to arrange everything and spoke with McGonagall when their Head of House arrived somewhere between it all.

Once she was ready and her parents had been taken away, Sirius took her to her childhood home, guiding her through the resulting breakdown and stayed with her.

It was only much later, once she slowly came out of her stupor to find herself wrapped in James' arms, and she had no idea when exactly he had arrived, that she learned Sirius had arranged for himself to stay with her until everything was over since James couldn't get out of his House obligations no matter how much his father wanted to let him stay with her.

James eventually guided her down to sleep on the couch; thankfully not forcing her up to her bedroom and stayed seated on the ground before the couch, holding her hand the entire time while in the background Sirius repeatedly tried to call Petunia and her last thought before she let herself sink into oblivion was that she was grateful they were there with her.


	3. Chapter 3

Dropping her long overcoat onto the ground, Lily moved towards the soft couch and sank down into it; half hoping it would swallow her whole.

She leaned back with her eyes closed, listening to Sirius close the door behind them and no doubt putting away her coat and shoes before she heard the kettle turn on.

She greatly appreciated the prolonged silence as he puttered around in the kitchen, allowing her to try and control her turmoil emotions, but it only felt like mere moments had passed when two cups were placed on the table and the couch dipped a little as he took a seat beside her.

Instead of the dreaded conversation she had been so sure would follow, he wordlessly pulled her towards him and willingly she let herself be wrapped in his embrace, curling up against his side.

She only realised she had fallen asleep because it was clearly evening the next time she blinked. It was mostly dark in the room; curtains clearly drawn as there was a soft light coming from somewhere beside her and she was comfortably warm; the sugary taste in her mouth informing her that at some point before she had fallen asleep, Sirius had managed to make her drink that cup of tea, though she had no memory of it.

There was a slow heartbeat underneath her ear that was both comforting and heart warming as it told her Sirius hadn’t left her alone; the cocoon of warmth and softness the hairy thing around her provided lulling her back into a light slumber.

Hairy…. eyes shooting open and half sitting up; she realised she was curled up with a large black dog, her head having rested on its flank while the dog’s square muzzle rested on her waist; clearly asleep if its closed eyes and inaudible breathing were any indication and as she stared at the beautiful creature, she wondered when exactly Sirius had gotten a dog and why he hadn’t told her as he knew she loved animals.

But even as her hazy mind tried to understand what she was seeing, her eyes caught sight of a small, very familiar round tag with a star on it around the animal’s neck and suddenly she realised exactly what, or rather who, she was looking at.

“Siri...no...Padfoot,” she breathed out, taking in the sight of the Animagus form of her surrogate little brother for the very first time.

His features immediately told her he couldn’t be anything but a German Shepherd, though she had never seen one with this uniquely dark colouring before and she wondered if the colouring was caused by his dark hair or because his Animagus form was as unique as he himself was.

Unable to help herself, she reached out to brush her fingers through the short but incredibly soft fur on his back, momentarily frowning as her fingers brushed over weird irregularities before realising they were scars; her action making familiar light grey eyes snap open and the dog’s head moved to gaze at her unblinkingly for a moment before he began to rise.

“Wait,” her voice broke over the single word as she stopped him from changing back as was clearly his intention and, sitting up completely, she cleared her throat to gaze at the creature now half seated beside her.

“Can I...” reaching out towards him the dog, Sirius, brushed his wet nose against her fingers and she petted over the soft muzzle; smiling when a large pink tongue slipped out to lick at her wrist before she brushed a hand over his soft head, his ears flickering at the touch. “I’ve never seen you like this before.”

That seemed to be enough indication for him to jump off the couch and stand straight before her; allowing her to see he was bigger than the average German Shepherd and take in the sight of him properly. His dense coat of hair hid any indication of the scars she had felt underneath her fingers, presenting a truly beautiful dog as he cocked his head to the side and whining at her softly when she stared at him in silence for a few moments.

“You can’t change back before I’ve touched those fluffy ears of yours, you do know that right?” She was fairly certain he was mentally rolling his eyes at her but obeyed in coming closer again, tail waggling happily as she brushed her fingers over the incredibly soft ears and she couldn’t help but reach out to let her fingers brush through the thick tail just once.

To her surprise, Sirius not only allowed her touch; he half turned to give her proper access to brush her fingers through his tail hair and she half suspected he was too used to James doing the same thing to be bothered by it before she pulled back. “Now you can change back.”

Not a moment later, Sirius straightened before her, making a point to actually roll his eyes at her now that he could as he stretched a little. “I swear that you all have an unhealthy obsession with that tail.”

“It’s fluffy and waggles,” she grinned as he didn’t seem at all annoyed by her action “I’ve never really thought about what kind of dog you were, though I’m not surprised you’re a German Shepherd.”

“James says I’m an Alsatian.”

“Same dog,” biting back a smile at his confusion, she elaborated. “During the second world war, both the British and the Germans used German Shepherds. But because the mere idea of using a German dog rubbed the British wrong, they renamed the dog to Alsatian. After the war ended, the name Alsatian was eventually dropped but considering James comes from an old line of British Wizards, I’m not surprised he would still refer to it as Alsatian.”

“It often does feel like the Wizarding culture here is held back by several centuries compared to Muggle culture,” Sirius admitted, gazing down at her. “I’m sorry I never showed you that form before.”

“There’s never really been a reason to, though I do wonder why you did so now.”

“Comfort, mostly,” he shifted a little shyly. “It always comforts James to cuddle with Padfoot when he’s upset so...”

“You thought right,” smiling, she refused to allow his insecurities to pull him back into his shell and pulled him close enough to wrap her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his stomach. “Thank you for letting me cuddle with you like that.”

“Any time,” came the quiet reply, making her smile as he leaned down to press a kiss into her hair. “Do you want something to eat?”

“Yes,” pulling back, she stretched a little, making a detour to the bathroom to relieve herself and wash her face while he disappeared into the kitchen. While drying her face, she heard him open and close several cupboards.

Trying to remember if they’d done any grocery shopping in the week they had been here, she ran a hand through her hair to brush it out a little.

“What kind of takeout do you want?” came the answer to her musing moments later and she bit back a smile as she left the bathroom to pick up the take out folder map he kept on a side table.

“We could get Chinese,” skimming through the various takeout menus, she made her way over to the table for pen and paper. “Yuri’s or Muggle?”

“Depends on how hungry you are,” he answered her cheekily, pulling spoons and chop sticks out of the drawer.

“Yuri’s it is,” she decided as that was the first folder she came across.

“You know what I like.”

Scribbling down their orders, she retrieved the money from the wallet Sirius dropped down next to her on his way to the coffee table and made her way to the fireplace.

Collecting a pinch of Floo powder to toss into the fire, she waited for the fire to turn green. “Yuri Yum-Yum Chinese Take-Away.”

Tossing the paper in, she wiped her hands clean on her skirt and turned to him. “What time do we have to return to Hogwarts?”

“Tomorrow afternoon,” he indicated to the notary folder on the coffee table she hadn’t noticed before. “I told McGonagall there were some things you still needed to take care of.”

“Right,” dread filled her as she made her way to his side. “Let’s get this over with, what do I need to do?”

“Decide on who gets to have their personal effects,” he grabbed a small paper bag from the side table and handed it over, making her glance into the bag and her heart clenched as she hadn’t even thought about those until now.

“Their wedding rings?”

“And your mother’s necklace and father’s watch,” Sirius nodded.

“How...”

“At the hospital, the nurse handed them over while I was arranging all the paperwork. I’m sorry I didn’t give them to you sooner, but you didn’t ask about it and I didn’t just want to hand them over to Petunia while you weren’t in any mindset to think clearly about what you might want.”

“Thank you,” breathing out relieved, she pulled out the thin silver necklace her mother had worn for as long as she could remember, caressing it. “Gran always said she wanted me to have her necklace one day so Petunia won’t be able to argue with that. I...would it be wrong if I want to keep their rings?”

“Not at all. I’m fairly sure Petunia is more interested in her other, more valuable, jewellery anyway and she’s not asked for the rings so far,” Sirius smiled sheepishly. “And I might not have mentioned to her that they were given to me either.”

“I’m surprised they just gave them to you,” she admitted, caressing the necklace.

“I might have told them I’m your adoptive brother,” he admitted. “It prevented any trouble they might’ve given me otherwise with arranging everything, too.”

“It wouldn’t really be a lie as you are my brother,” letting the necklace slide back into the paper bag, she placed it on the table and squeezed his hand. “Thank you. What else do I need to do?”

“Decide on what you want to do during the holidays. Have you thought on where you want to stay yet?”

“I think I’d like to stay at Potter Manor. I can’t stay in that house all alone, I just…..”

“Can’t,” he finished for her. “You could always stay here if you’d prefer not to stay at Potter Manor.”

“I know, but I really don’t want to be alone and staying at Potter Manor, it’s both easier and comforting.”

“All right, but if you change your mind at any time...”

“I just have to say the word and different arrangements will be made,” smiling, she reached out to squeeze his hand again. “I know.”

Nodding in agreement, Sirius rose to his feet as the fire turned green and several boxes of takeout appeared in it. “Then we will travel home tomorrow so you can put your personal belongings in your room there and arrange everything to your liking before we travel back to school.”

Pulling them out, he placed them on the table, dividing them as per ordered even though Lily knew it was likely they’d share some food as well.

“Maybe we can pick up some pastries for the guys before we go back,” she handed over a pair of chopsticks to him. “What else do we still need to take care of before we return?”

“Not much. The notary will handle pretty much everything else according to their Will. Their bank account will be cancelled and the contents directed towards paying part of what’s still open of the mortgage.”

“Oh god, I didn’t even think of the mortgage,” swallowing, she buried her face in her hands. “I don’t have any money and I don’t think Petunia can afford to pay off the mortgage either.”

“You don’t have to worry about anything, I’ve given the Notary permission to directly transfer what’s left of the mortgage from my personal account so the house is completely mortgage free.”

“What? I can’t let you do that!” Horrified, she looked up to him but he shook his head calmly.

“It’s either me doing it or James and I didn’t think you want him to pay for anything.”

“No...I don’t want to take advantage of his money. I...this is my problem, not his or yours,” she tried to argue, but he simply waved her off.

“The only reason I’ve not paid it in full and left you your parents savings is because I knew half of those would go to Petunia and I’m not helping her in any way. The amount you would’ve been entitled to had I done that has already been transferred to your personal account,” he pulled his chopsticks apart.

“I...I’m never going to be able to pay you back,” she didn’t know what to say.

“I didn’t hear you utter those words just now,” he shot her a stern look. “Tiffy has offered to keep the house clean and in working order until you’re ready to decide what to do with it. If you’d like to keep it in the family, say the word and James will buy it for you or if you want to sell it, we’ll make arrangements for that as well. But don’t be rushed, you have the time to think about it and discuss it with your sister.”

“Siri...”

“Not hearing you,” he whistled loudly, twirling his chopsticks around.

Gratitude, grief and mortifying helplessness threatened to overwhelm her momentarily as they fought for the upper hand as she knew his actions ensured she wasn’t throwing herself into debt to make do on everything; he had truly taken care of everything like he had said he would.

“Siri...” swallowing down any protest that came to her, aware he wouldn’t want to hear it, she tried to find the words to vocalise her gratitude. “When the house is being sold, I’ll pay you back what I can.”

“I’m hearing an echo in here,” grumbling, he pointed his chopsticks at her. “You are not doing anything except live your life happily with James, have fun and maybe give me tons of nieces and nephews to play with in the future.”

“I’ll try my best?” Choking back a watery laugh at the approving hum that she got in return, she opened her own chopsticks. “Thank you.”

Humming in acknowledgement, Sirius glanced at her from the corner of his eyes; clearly debating something as he made himself comfortable on the ground across of her. “You could play a game with me after dinner.”

“I’d like that. Do you like Backgammon?” She had taken a few board games from her parents' house while collecting a few personal belongings she had wanted to secure or thought she might need for the rest of their months at Hogwarts, thinking that James and Sirius would enjoy the games.

“That depends on if you cheat like Remus and Peter,” he said in between bites.

“Remus would protest about him cheating,” she couldn’t help but laugh when he rolled his eyes. “I know he is the worst cheat there is, but he will never admit as much. And I am not a cheater.”

“You are with card games,” he accused her.

“My Gran always said that card games were invented for cheaters,” the mere thought of her beloved grandmother didn’t cause a stab in her heart any more and although she still missed her dearly, it felt good to be able to say her name without a stab through the heart and hoped that one day, she’d be able to do the same with her parents.

“Don’t tell Remus that, he will make it his personal mantra to excuse his cheating ways.”

“I’ll do my best,” she easily promised. “But I promise I’ve never cheated in board games.”

“All right, then we can play Backgammon if you teach me the rules.”

“Deal,” leaning over to peer into his boxes, she stole one of his dumplings, grinning up at him from under her lashes when he rolled his eyes.

“Tiffy’s going to be disappointed with you for stealing my food,” he teased. “She always gets this most hilarious disapproving glare whenever Pete takes food meant for me.”

“I’m sure she’ll forgive me for stealing a dumpling, especially since I know you always have a double order because you know Remus and James love them but always forget that they love them and will steal some from you.”

“I think you forgot to include yourself in that,” laughing, he held out the box of dumplings so she could steal another and she hummed in thanks before sobering.

“Thank you.”

“I’m hardly going to eat them all on my own.”

“Not for the dumplings,” placing down her chopsticks, she reached out to take his hand. “For everything you’ve done, I don’t know how I would’ve managed without you.”

“That’s what’s family is for,” squeezing her hand in return, he smiled before they continued eating in comfortable camaraderie.


	4. Chapter 4

Skimming through the offered selection, Lily frowned. “They don’t really have a lot of non-sugary stuff, Siri.”

“I wasn’t aware we were looking for non-sugary stuff,” her companion sounded distracted as he was standing by the window and she half turned to look at him.

“Of course we are. If I just take along what the guys requested, you won’t eat anything,” her frown deepened as he didn’t answer. “Is everything all right?”

“Hmm?”

“We’ll also take two of those fruity thingies and add another two of these,” she ordered before abandoning the counter to move to his side. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t like London.”

“So I’ve noticed, but you’ve not been this tense until we entered here.”

“I….something’s wrong, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

“A feeling?” Intrigued, she looked out of the window as well, hoping to see what it was that was making him so uneasy.

“Must be as I can’t see anything wrong on the street. It’s like….my mind is screaming danger, but I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly the danger is.”

Noticing his fingers twitch towards his wand holster, she swallowed. “I’ll hurry up so we can leave.”

“Yeah...,” giving her a distracted half-smile, his eyes didn’t leave the window so she hurried back to the counter where the employee was just finishing wrapping her order and reached for her wallet to pay for it all when an ear-splitting explosion rocked the world around them.

The light blinded them as the windows shattered and instinctively she raised a shield to protect herself and the employee from both glass and debris raining down around them, even as a vaguely familiar bluish white shield formed around them momentarily before failing. Not having expected the normally impenetrable shield to collapse, she’d let go of her own shield to converse energy and she coughed as dust filled her nostrils.

Covering her nose with her clothes, she tightened her grip on her wand and scanned for the threat while at the same time trying to locate Sirius, but she couldn’t see either through the dusty air and even though her heart hammered in her throat, she forced herself to focus on the task on hand.

“Are you all right?” Barely waiting for the terrified girl’s answer, she pointed her wand at her. “There was an explosion, you need to get out of here. Go through the back and don’t stop running until you are safe.”

The girl’s eyes turned vacant momentarily as her spell took hold before she turned and ran out the back without another word and taking a deep breath, Lily rose to her feet to move towards the spot she’d last seen Sirius, relieved to see him appear at her side, covered in debris and dust.

“You okay?” Blood was running down his temple, but he looked both alert and steady so she nodded. “Good, there are Death Eaters in the street. Can you conjure a Patronus?”

Doing as requested, she watched Sirius cast a spell at her doe. “Need help, attack in Broadway Market near Ingles Bakery.”

Watching him send the Patronus off, she didn’t waste time asking questions and instead followed him over the rubble and into the chaos as people were screaming and automatically she began to cast spells when Sirius did; even before she identified the masked figures approaching the running crowd as Death Eaters.

They clearly hadn’t expected any resistance as they managed to take out several of them before they were even located, but the ones left reorganised quickly and began counterattacking; unhindered by trying to protect innocent bystanders.

Sirius’ shield made a re-appearance; bending backwards around the terrified Muggles, effectively blocking them from the fighting happening in the middle of the street and although it freed Lily up completely to take on the Death Eaters; she was still forced to raise a shield as a jet of red light came her way.

Her conjured shield briefly reflected under the connecting beam before bouncing it off to the side and her heart missed a beat as Sirius only narrowly managed to shift to the side enough so that the Death Eater behind him was caught by the reflected spell instead of him.

But there was no time for apologises as she had to fight with all she had to defend herself from the onslaught of attacks; Sirius fighting alongside her and she tried to follow his example of combining defence with offensive attacks.

“Watch out,” his sudden push unbalanced her momentarily before excruciating pain pierced her skin, making her feel like her arm was going to burst as white-hot knives slammed through every inch of it and she wasn’t even aware she was screaming until her contact with Sirius was broken and the pain abruptly vanished.

Panting, she pushed down the pain and blocked another spell directed at her and Sirius, shifting to cover him as he unsteadily got to his feet as it was clear he had caught the brunt of whatever spell that had been.

But the resident fire still spreading through her veins didn’t seem to bother him the same way as he immediately shot off several curses and hexes in response, as agile as ever.

“If you’re hit with that again, curl your back and just throw out whatever spell you can think of; it’ll most likely break the Crucio,” he moved away from her as a group of Death Eaters targetted him specifically.

And although it went against all her gut instincts to let him leave her sight, the way the majority of them focused on Sirius with a terrifying single mindedness gave her the breathing room to take them on from behind without being immediately noticed.

“Stand down,” a high, clear voice called out tauntingly and her heart stopped as she saw a vision from her nightmares appear in the street, terror washing over her at the sight of the bald skull glistering in the sun the same way it did in her nightmares of that Hogsmeade attack; his hateful snake-like eyes rooting her on the spot.

She couldn’t breath under that horrifying gaze, memories of screaming students paralysing her in place even if she herself had been safely shielded.

“Such talent...who are you?”

“A Muggle-born bitch, my Lord,” one of the Death Eaters closest to Voldemort had gathered behind him and bowed low as he spoke, making blood-red eyes widen slightly as his full attention was focused on her.

“I see, such talent wasted on protecting such worthless creatures, tell me girl, would you not prefer a true purpose for these powers you have acquired? Skills like yours would be of much better use among my ranks,” his smile was almost more terrifying than his glare, the cruelness of it easily visible. “Stand down and you will have a place among my trusted inner circle. Keep fighting and I will have to kill you.”

“You’re not touching her,” Sirius’ growl snapped her out of her paralysis as he took down two Death Eaters coming at him by collapsing the wall they were standing in front of; his original assailants all either out of play or falling back behind Voldemort.

“You,” any trace of humanity disappeared underneath a hatred unlike anything she had ever seen as he shot of a spell towards Sirius immediately, and although he avoided it by yanking a nearby Death Eater into it’s path while at the same time blocking several jets of red light, white hot fury washed over her.

How dare that monster try to harm her brother and think she’d ever willingly even consider joining his ranks. “Reducto!”

Several of the buildings behind the monster blew up as he shielded in time, but it had the desired effect to halt his assault on Sirius and take out two of the slower Death Eaters as she snarled. “Stay away from my brother.”

His anger turned to her and his Cruciatus broke through her conjured shield; but even as she tensed for impact, it was Voldemort who withered on the ground the next moment, screaming as he became victim to his own curse.

“I believe I said you weren’t touching her,” Sirius growled, dropping some kind of mirror spell she’d never seen before and chaos erupted all around them as the remaining Death Eaters all seemed terrified by what he’d done as, out of nowhere, a wall of flaming serpents with burning maws came roaring towards her and she found herself frozen as intense heat washed over her, knowing there was no escaping that.

But although the heat was overwhelming, the flames themselves warped harmlessly around them as Sirius cut through the middle of the raging inferno of death and destruction; a circle of monstrous serpents curling around them almost protectively, mutating even as they vaporizing the Death Eaters surrounding them.

She barely registered the smell of burning flesh as she watched the newly formed enormous dogs roar as they crashed into the unprepared Death Eaters before them, their horrified screams ringing in her ears briefly before they were cut off by the roaring flames.

As sudden as the flames had appeared, they vanished again and Sirius moved fully before her as Voldemort screamed murderous, somehow having managed to protect himself and the Death Eaters closest to him from the rebounding magic.

Blood-red eyes almost looked frightened as he stared at them but before either of them could make another move, the sound of multiple Apparitions announced new arrivals and she could’ve cried at the sight of Alice and several others.

Voldemort’s cry of outrage was satisfying as he realised most of his Death Eaters were gone and within moments he called a retreat as he obviously knew he was now severely outnumbered.

The moment they disappeared in a swirl of smoke, the shields covering the Muggles collapsed as Sirius stumbled and Lily barely managed to grab him to prevent him from collapsing as well. “Siri!”

“Are….are you...” he seemed incapable of forming a complete sentence as his expression tightened in pain before he gathered himself enough to try and straighten, but she all but forced him to sit down as his entire body was trembling and he was pale as a sheet.

“I’m fine, bit banged up but I’m all right,” raising her wand at the sound of hurriedly approaching footsteps, she sighed relieved when it was only Alice.

“Sirius!”

“Ali,” trembling fingers tightened in the fabric of her clothing and Alice stiffened as grey eyes bore into her own momentarily before her expression tightened.

“Damn it, Siri,” cursing, she broke eye contract. “Take him and check them both.”

A red-head took her place, pulling Sirius from Lily’s hold completely to cast diagnostic charms on him. “He’s all right.”

“What’s happening?” Lily was of half a mind to cast a shield around them to protect him from these new people, but Sirius didn’t seem alarmed as he let the red-haired man take his weight, the blatant display of trust allowing her to relax enough to recognise the man as one of the Prewett twins.

“He’s magically exhausted, whatever he did, it took up most of his reserves,” he explained, casting spells on Sirius but although they healed the still bleeding wound on his temple, they did nothing for his trembling and paleness.

“I’m fine Fab, just dizzy,” Sirius said. “Is Lil...”

“I’ll check her over,” she tensed at the new voice before realising it was just Frank Longbottom and sitting back, she allowed him to heal her cuts and bruises without taking her eyes off of Sirius. “She’s fine, just some bumps and bruises.”

“Is he all right?”

“I’m fine,” blinking rapidly, Sirius tried to push himself to his feet; the little bit of colour he had left draining quickly as he looked far more exhausted than she had ever seen him look before and it didn’t surprise her Fabian had no problems keeping him in place. “Fabian, I need to go...”

“Alice is checking whoever it is you are so worried about,” Fabian reassured him softly and although Lily had no idea who Sirius was talking about as it had only been the two of them there, she was relieved his words calmed Sirius down enough to stop trying to get up.

“What happened here?” Frank knelt down beside her to keep their conversation somewhat private even as several others moved around them.

“I’m not sure. We were on an errant when there suddenly was an explosion and then we saw Death Eaters in the street so we fought them.”

“What did Sirius do to exhaust his magic this much?”

“They used Fiendfyre and, I don’t….,” she still couldn’t quite believe Sirius had somehow managed to take control of the deadly inferno and turned it against their assailants. “He rebound it to them.”

“He rebound….Merlin, careful.”

While he spoke, Sirius had straightened; though he was still as pale as a sheet and Fabian’s arm had tightened around him. “I’m all right, my magic is fine.”

The sound of Apparition made Lily tense once more, but Alice didn’t even glance at her as she knelt down before Sirius again. “She’s fine, has a bit of a headache because your magic flared, but that’s it. How are you?”

“He bounced Fiendfyre back at a bunch of Death Eaters,” Frank informed her softly even as she pulled Sirius into a hug and although she tensed at her fiancé’s words, Sirius relaxed into her at hers.

“She’s truly fine?” His voice was muffled as he was now sort of sandwiched between Fabian and Alice as neither of the two seemed willing to let go of him for a long moment, only pulling back when he began to shift away.

“You managed to isolate your Healing bond without taking away the magic keeping her alive,” she pulled back to caress his cheek with her thumb.

“Healing….who did you bond with?” Fabian’s eyes widened and his hands twitched like he wanted to pull Sirius back into his arms protectively but knew it wouldn’t be appreciated as Sirius shifted out of Alice’s reach.

“Remus’ mother is ill.”

“She’s terminally ill with a Muggle disease called cancer,” Alice elaborated and Lily’s stomach dropped as she hadn’t even known Remus’ mother wasn’t well, let alone terminally so.

“It can’t be healed by magic?”

“No,” her surrogate brother shot her a surprisingly guilty look before continuing. “I bonded to her so that my magic could aid her in her struggle, isolate the illness and keep her from feeling any pain as although I couldn’t heal it, I could try to buy her as much time as possible.”

“Leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable in the progress, what were you thinking?” Frank bit out.

“I wasn’t exactly counting on running into Death Eaters,” he shot Frank a glare, though Lily was more worried about the wince he wasn’t able to hide completely.

Lily bit her lip. “How long have you been aiding her?”

“Almost a year now, I’m trying to let her last until after graduation,” he admitted.

“Are you doing this for Remus’ sake?” Because if he was, she was going to be livid with both of them and might actually strangle the oldest of the Marauders for allowing Sirius to do this.

“No,” sighing, he rubbed a hand over his face. “It’s her greatest wish to see him graduate and although I couldn’t promise her it was possible, I want to at least try. I wasn’t expecting trouble like this and I would’ve been all right if that lunatic hadn’t cast Fiendfyre.”

“How did you manage to wrestle control away?” Frank asked curiously as Alice gave into her instincts to put an arm around Sirius again.

“Desperation and luck. She wasn’t expecting me to fight for control and she certainly didn’t expect me to strengthen it with my shielding to burn them all to crisps while leaving the Muggles unharmed.”

“Shield….so that’s why the area isn’t completely destroyed on your side,” taking a deep breath, Fabian ran a hand through his hair. “An action like that combined with divided magic, it’s no wonder your magic is exhausted. You just have a talent for running into trouble, don’t you?”

“We weren’t the targets and I told you, my magic isn’t exhausted,” Warm grey eyes shifted to Lily. “Are you truly all right?”

“I’m fine,” reaching out to squeeze his hand, he nodded relieved.

“The two of you managed to save a lot of lives today,” a gruff voice made Lily turn to see a man she’d often seen in the Prophet but only seen in the flesh once back at Hogsmeade. “Including that of the original target.”

“Who was it?” Sirius clasped hands with Moody like they were old friends, using the grip to pull himself up and perhaps they were as Moody in turn briefly pulling him close before pulling back and searching his eyes with his own briefly.

Clearly finding what he was looking for, Moody nodded even as the others helped Lily to her feet as well. “Evereth Everdeen. He said the only reason he got away was because two kids opened the attack out of the blue after the Death Eaters blew up half the street to chase him down.”

“What did they want with him?”

“He refused to join their ranks,” the older man answered grimly. “You did well, alerting us as soon as you could. Though your Patronus seems to have changed a little.”

“Mine failed so we sent hers,” Sirius indicated to Lily. “Moody, this is Lily Evans.”

A pair of dark eyes, nearly black, swept over her curiously. “She one of yours?”

“Yes.”

Lily had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but figured now wasn’t the time to ask and simply accepted the hand held out to her in greeting.

“All right, pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine.”

“Any casualties?” Sirius asked as they walked towards where the others were collecting the injured.

“Seven, though it seems Everdeen was their primary target as all deaths occurred due to the explosion itself. Any other plans they might’ve had were ruined by the two of you and that fancy shield of yours,” Moody answered, turning to a Wizard Lily didn’t recognise who was kneeling between the injured. “Status?”

“There are two with still life-threatening injuries who haven’t been looked at yet or freed completely,” the man answered, shifting to the side as Sirius moved into the indicated direction.

“Can you tell me your name?” He asked the adolescent girl he was nearest to while casting a diagnostic charm, making no move to free her from the rubbish she was still half buried under.

“Ma-madeleine,” the girl gasped and cold sweat ran down Lily’s spine as Sirius held out a hand to stop the two working to free her.

“That’s a lovely name, I’m Sirius. Were you out here alone today?”

“Y-yes...I….” the girl coughed and Sirius got to his knees properly to carefully lift her head far enough to let it rest onto his knees.

“Are you from around here?”

“Yes,” the girl’s panicked blue eyes blinked rapidly as she looked up to Sirius, her fast breathing slowing as she focused on his calm demeanour. “Y-you?”

“I’m originally from North London, but I’ve lived in Corby for a little over two years now,” one of his hands found the girl’s when she blindly reached for him after another coughing fit. “I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.”

“It doesn’t….it doesn’t hurt any more...” the girl frowned and Lily swallowed thickly as she realised Sirius wasn’t even attempting to heal the girl, simply focusing on comforting her.

“That would be because I magically numbed your pain,” he leaned closer with a conspiring smile. “Don’t tell anyone Maddy, but I’m secretly a wizard.”

“G-get out of here,” she choked out a laugh, blood trickling down the side of her mouth. “Prove it.”

“Sure. What do you love?”

“Dolphins,” came the instant, slightly embarrassed answer and humming in acknowledgement, half a dozen dolphins lightened up the sky in Maddy’s line of sight as Sirius leaned back and a tiny gasp escaped as she watched them dance in the sky as if jumping out of the sea.

They vanished after only a few moments had passed and blinking at the sudden darkness left behind, Lily looked back down in time to see Sirius close the girl’s unseeing eyes gently and she had to fight back tears at the life lost.

Taking a shaky breath, Sirius briefly closed his eyes to compose himself before shifting out from underneath her body and gently resting her back on the ground; accepting Fabian’s hand to be helped up before grimly turning to the two men who had been working to free her.

“Meadows, Edgar, let’s free her so she can be covered up before her parents might arrive at the scene,” nodding the two helped him magically lift the debris to free the crushed lower body and Sirius covered her with the white sheet Fabian provided.

“Dearborn, you said there was another one severely injured?”

The man who had spoken earlier looked up, indicating to a body not too far away from where they were and as Sirius moved there, Lily took a moment to compose herself, too.

This wasn’t the first time she had seen someone die and she suspected it wouldn’t be the last time so taking comfort in the knowledge the girl hadn’t died alone, she pushed her out of her mind to focus again to join Sirius just as he finished healing the man’s injuries.

Rising to his feet, Sirius turned to the little group. “The usual?”

Nodding, the group turned as one to perform damage control; Moody, Frank and Fabian modifying the memories of the Muggles nearby while the other three unfamiliar man took another group under hand and Sirius and Alice cleared the obvious signs of of a magical explosion with barely a word spoken between them.

“Let’s take you both in to the Ministry for questioning so we can get a statement,” Moody suggested once they were finished, running a hand through his wild hair as he surveyed the damage Sirius and Alice had left. “Longbottom, make it seem like a gas pipe exploded while we...”

“I’m not going anywhere but Hogwarts,” Sirius cut him off, even as he nodded to Frank to carry on as he paused at his words. “You can get our statement there.”

“I think that’s wisest as not all of us are Aurors and the alert didn’t come to official channels,” Fabian wrapped an arm around Sirius’ shoulder. “Bringing them to the Ministry might raise questions we’re not ready to answer.”

“Besides, you really don’t want to keep them away from James for a moment longer than absolutely necessary,” Alice added.

“Ali,” groaning, Sirius slumped against the male beside him, making Fabian chuckle and squeeze his shoulder.

“He’s going to know something happened the moment he sees you, he’s terrifying like that and I’d rather not be mauled because we kept you from him.”

“He’s never going to let me leave his sight again.”

“With good reason, you’re a bigger trouble magnet than Charlie is,” grinning, the older Prewett twin approached. “Evans.”

“Prewett,” nodding in returned greeting, Lily watched as Gideon briefly hugged Sirius.

“Do I really need to remind you two of the amounts of times in the last year alone that you’ve called me out to the Hog’s Head to treat the kid so his mother wouldn’t be contacted by St Mungo's about the questionable animal bites he received due to his attraction to all that’s not huggable?” Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Or mention all the trees he’s tried to climb into last summer when we were visiting?”

“Okay, so maybe comparing you to Charlie was a mistake,” Gideon and Fabian both winced in unison and it suddenly occurred to Lily that her friend was on a first name basis with nearly everyone who had showed up and knew the others.

“How did you know they would come for help?” She couldn’t help ask as he hadn’t been surprised to see them, had actually actively alerted them to what was going on; though she blinked surprised as the entire group tensed before they turned to Moody as one.

“Do you trust her?” Piercing eyes stared her down, though she knew the question wasn’t directed at her.

“Completely and I’m fairly sure she will want to join as well,” there was something sad in Sirius’ voice and although cryptic, the words seemed to put Moody at ease as he turned calculating eyes her way.

“She could be an asset, but how do you know she is truly trustworthy? Do you truly know her?”

“She’s my future sister-in-law and most definitely a target as she turned down his offer to join his ranks in a rather spectacular way.”

“Oh?”

“She tried to blow him up,” blushing at their incredulous stares, she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear even as Sirius grinned.

“He was trying to hurt you, I wasn’t just going to stand by and let that happen.”

“I can see why James likes her,” whistling impressed, Gideon grinned at her and the cold look in Moody’s eyes turned to appreciation as he looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.

“Very well, but not here.”

“I will inform her back at school, but if I tell her, that means I’m telling Peter the general story as well.”

“You...”

“It’s all right, Gideon. As long as you swear him to silence, then it might be wise to prepare him now so he’ll be ready should he wish to join his friends,” Moody said. “Just...”

“You know I won’t share the names of those who are members, though James will learn about Meadowes and Dearborn as he will want to see the memory of what happened so we can study it and apply their fighting patterns to our training.”

“That’s all right, it’s only a question of time before he’d have found out about them and I know he will keep his mouth shut. Will you keep your silence?”

“Yes,” she had seen enough today to realise she was face to face with members of a resistance group and that keeping their identities a secret was very important.

“Then perhaps you can now tell me what you two were doing here?”

“Getting pastries for the guys before we returned to Hogwarts.”

“But why were you in London in the first place?”

“We were arranging the last things of her parent’s Will,” the attack had managed to take her mind off of her grief momentarily but now she had to swallow back her sadness again.

“I’m so sorry, I knew that their funeral was this week,” watching Alice silently berate herself gave Lily the strength to push her sadness down again.

“It’s all right,” ignoring the soft condolences from around her, she leaned into Sirius’ side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders in silent comfort. “We should return to Hogwarts, though. They’re right in that James will know something happened and will want to see you’re safe.”

“You say that like he’s not worried for your safety as well,” Sirius said and she smiled, heart warming at the knowledge James would indeed be worried for her.

“Then let’s go ease his mind.”

“Let me see if our pastries survived,” to her utter surprise, Sirius disappeared from her side to climb back into the destroyed bakery, returning moments later with a large plastic bag.

“I can’t believe you’re even thinking about that right now!” Bemused, she watched as he pulled the cardboard box out of the bag and peeked into it to check if they were all right.

“Clearly you’ve not spend enough time around Remus and Peter if you’re not worried about returning without sweets and who knows, maybe the treats will mollify their protectiveness.”

“Not a chance,” Fabian laughed. “Come on, Alice and I will accompany you back to Hogwarts, get your statement and maybe we can watch you attempt to mollify James and Lupin with pastry.”

“And I want you checked out by Madam Pomfrey while we’re there,” Alice added.

“I’m not going to her.”

“Siri...”

“No, I promise to let James check me over, but I’m not visiting her,” it was clear both of his overprotective friends could hear the finality in his voice as they both sighed but consented and without another word, Sirius took her hand and Apparated them back to Hogwarts.

The nauseating effect of Apparating was strangely comforting as was the sight of Hogwarts and as Fabian and Alice appeared beside them, she walked with them up the path towards the castle entrance where Peeves and Tiffy just arrived.

“How did you know?”

“Tiffy couldn’t feel Siri until yous arrived,” the little elf hurried forward and he dropped to his knees to catch her as she threw herself at him.

“I’m sorry for worrying you, I’m fine.”

Ignoring the rest of them completely, Tiffy nuzzled him close for a moment before beginning to fuss over him and Peeves took their parting to come up behind Sirius, pulling him up to his feet again and wrapping his pale arms around his shoulders.

“Are you all right? What happened?”

“I’m fine, we got caught up in a Death Eater attack,” leaning backwards into Peeves’ embrace, Sirius looked up at the ghost, to which the Poltergeist’s hold tightened and she felt privileged to witness the normally malicious ghost’s nurturing behaviour.

“He gots hit with the torture curse,” Tiffy bristled angrily, making the Poltergeist’s expression tighten as much as his hold had, piercing eyes checking Sirius over.

“What?!” Immediately Fabian and Alice tensed, moving forward as one to check him over again but Sirius waved them off.

“I’m fine, not the first time and besides, I’m not the only one who got hit,” his words made Lily grimace as she remembered the all-consuming pain in her arm, not sure how he could be so nonchalant about it as the echo of it still haunted her.

“If I recall correctly then you actually pushed me aside and I only caught part of it,” bemused she watched all four of his friends try to fuss over him and although it was clear he wasn’t happy about it, he allowed them to do so for a few moments before stepping away from them and towards Lily as if she could protect him from their mothering.

“I’m fine, nothing’s broken and I’ll be sure to let James take care of me as soon as I’ve showered, because frankly, that’s the only thing I want right now and I will become very cross if you keep me from doing so much longer.”

“All right, all right,” holding up his hands in defence, Fabian stepped back as Peeves brushed some dirt from Sirius’ shoulder and Tiffy clasped her hands together.

“Tiffy will makes food for both of yous, leave your clothes on the floor when yous shower and she will fix them,” she directed towards Lily.

“You don’t have to...”

“Don’t bother, she’s going to do as she pleases so it’s easier to just submit and let her do her thing than waste time arguing about it and still end up with the same result,” Sirius advised her, handing over his plastic bag without argument as Tiffy held out her little hands before she popped away.

“We should get to McGonagall’s office, would you mind alerting James to what happened and maybe empathise that we’re fine and will see him soon?” he asked the Poltergeist, who nodded and disappeared through one of the walls.

“Come,” feeling Sirius’ hand on her lower back, she walked with him towards McGonagall’s office, ignoring the shocked stares they received from those they passed.


	5. Chapter 5

Needless to say, McGonagall wasn’t pleased by their adventure; rubbing a hand over her face once they were done giving their statements.

“How is it possible that you always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

“I’d say they were there at the exact right time,” Fabian intervened. “I have no doubt that all of those Muggles would’ve been dead now if they hadn’t been there.”

“True,” McGonagall deflated. “What consequences will their actions have?”

“Crouch will probably come with an officially statement in the Prophet tomorrow,” sighing, Alice leaned back in her seat. “We first need to smooth over a few details as to how we were alerted to today’s attack as it didn’t exactly come through official channels.”

“Will we be called forward as witnesses?”

“Why…”

“It’s unlikely, Miss Evans,” McGonagall interrupted Fabian’s forming question. “Your statements have been taken by an Auror and that’s enough as I don’t see it coming to a trial.”

“And even if it did, it’s very unlikely they would call upon you,” Alice winced as she seemed to realise how that sounded. “Sorry.”

“It is the way that it is,” shooting the blond woman a smile, Lily asked, “Will what happened today have consequences for us?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if your names made it into the Prophet despite our efforts to keep you hidden, though and it would be wise to prepare for that,” dark grey eyes met her own as Fabian spoke and Lily frowned as she wasn’t quite sure what he meant with that.

“It means that the world will know you took a stance against Voldem-...” trailing of briefly to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at McGonagall’s flinch at the name, Sirius deliberately turned away from her to answer Lily’s unspoken question. “In layman’s terms it means you’ve told the world you will stand against him and as such, the general public will treat you one of two ways.”

“They’ll either hate me and want to kill me or they’ll worship the ground I stand on like they did to you guys after the Battle of Hogsmeade,” huffing, she tucked a lock of hair behind her ears. “Nothing new there.”

“Not exactly,” shifting in his seat, Sirius looked at her. “You were already somewhat of a target because you are Muggle-born but the darker students didn’t dare make too big of a move against you since we’ve taken you under our protection and you starting to date James only fortified that protection as most of the old Houses wouldn’t dare attack a potential Lady without reason.”

“But now that you’ve publicly humiliated Voldemort, defied him in front of his most trusted Death Eaters, they will come after you,” Fabian continued. “The protection of the House of Potter won’t be enough any more to keep you safe, especially since both Sirius and James are considered to be blood traitors.”

“I understand, but I don’t regret my actions.”

“I know you don’t and we will have your back no matter what,” Sirius reassured her. “You were always going to be a target after graduation because of your blood status, this just put you onto the playing field a little early.”

He looked up to Alice and Fabian. “She has already been given all the protections of a Potter that we could give her and James and I will make sure she’s prepared."

Eyeing them all for a moment, McGonagall pushed her tin can forward. “Have a biscuit.”

Looking up to their Head of House in disbelief at the weird offer, she withheld her remark as all three of her companions leaned forward to pick one up without so much as a blink of the eye and she wondered if this was a normal occurrence when having a meeting in this office.

From the nonchalant way they all acted at the offer, she figured it just might be and accepted the biscuit Sirius held out to her.

“Will you be seeing Madam Pomfrey, Sirius?” McGonagall’s sharp eyes seemed to have caught Sirius’ small wince when leaning forward.

“I’m fine,” nibbling on his biscuit, Sirius seemed unaware of the resigned look crossing over McGonagall’s expression.

“Very well, I will take comfort in the knowledge Mister Potter will no doubt want to check you over and will take action should it be needed,” the easy acceptance of Sirius’ continued refusal to be treated surprised Lily, but she didn’t say a word as she knew the woman spoke the truth and James would look him over. “But if he has any lingering problems, then I am counting on you Miss Evans, to report him to Madam Pomfrey and the same goes for yourself.”

“I...yes Professor,” she had absolutely no intention of that sort, but their Head of House didn’t need to know that and she rose to her feet as everyone else did.

She was relieved to see Sirius decline the offer of an escort, Alice and Fabian saying their goodbyes before they left and they were allowed to make their way back to Gryffindor tower.

Once more their filthy appearance caused whispers and looks, but before she could begin to worry about someone approaching them, Sirius pulled her into an empty hallway and tapped the wall in a pattern that made the stones slide away to reveal a secret passage.

“Come,” she followed him into the small dark passage as he slipped a hand in hers; leaving them in near darkness as the wall closed behind them again and he glanced back to give her a thorough once-over despite the dark. “You are all right, aren’t you? I simply assumed so since Frank said...”

“I am,” softly interrupting him. “Are you?”

“I have some cuts and bruises that really need caring for as well as a deep cut in my side that will need Dittany and I have some lingering damage from that Crucio,” his honestly surprised her and she glanced at him as they carefully made their way through the passage.

“Why didn’t Fabian heal you?”

“I might have hid my injuries automatically,” he admitted sheepishly and her stomach turned at the implication that him hiding his injuries was a normal occurrence and from the way McGonagall had reacted, it very well might be.

“Why…..did those….did the Blacks make you hide your injuries and is that why you have so many scars?” Immediately she wished the ground would swallow her hole for allowing that question to slip after she had vowed to herself to never ask him about them, especially as Sirius immediately froze.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” swallowing, she squeezed his hand. “You don’t have to answer that….I...”

“No, I….” the tenseness didn’t leave Sirius’ body, though he did take a deep breath. “You’ve never asked...”

“It’s not my place to ask about what you are not willing to share,” she swallowed again. “Just forget I asked anything.”

“They threatened to kill everyone I cared for if anyone ever found out, actually did kill a House-elf who tried to help me and as a result, I learned to hide any injury I received so I wouldn’t endanger anyone else,” Sirius’ voice was barely above a whisper.

“It was pure dumb luck on the guys side that they discovered it when they did,” closing his eyes, he let out a wry laugh. “Well, they probably saved my life as I had gotten a severe infection from being unable to properly reach the wounds and I’m glad they discovered it as it meant I wouldn’t have to lie to them any more, even if I was constantly terrified for their safety.”

She reached out to take his other hand as well, fighting to give him a small smile even though what she really wanted to do was cry as her heart tightened at how small he looked right then; knowing she was responsible for this unsure and broken look. “I’m glad they were there for you. Will James truly be able to take care of your injuries?”

“Yes,” he assured her and taking in the way he had somewhat relaxed at her soft touch, she pulled him into a hug; holding onto each other for a long moment before she pulled back to press a kiss to his cheek. “Then let’s go so he can treat you.”

Humming in agreement, he turned back to lead them through the narrow passages and she followed him mutely until they passed a part where the wall had crumbled down; revealing a large pipe running through it on the other side.

“What’s that for?” She examined the pipe while Sirius climbed onto the rubble carefully, never having seen anything that big before. “It can’t be for plumbing, it’s much too large for that.”

“We think it’s a way of transportation,” Sirius answered, turning once he made his way to the top to help her up as well.

“Transportation for what?” Carefully stepping onto loose pieces of rubble, she paused half way up to look at the broken pipe more closely, noticing the hole itself seemed to have been caused by something else than the wall collapsing. “How far do you think this runs?”

“As far as we could determine, these old enchanted pipes run through most of the school, though they don’t reach the towers or run near the kitchens.”

“Did you explore all of them?” Amused she leaned in to look into the pipe, but startled back when Sirius pulled her back.

“It’s not safe for you to do that. James and I explored them until we reached a trap door that was blocked by ancient magic.”

“And you haven’t tried to go through it?”

“No,” the genuine denial made her look at him surprised.

“A secret passage you didn’t want to explore? Why not?”

“Because James and I were fairly sure we stumbled upon the Chamber of Secrets.”

“You found the Chamber of Secrets?” Through her friendship with Snape, she had learned all about the supposedly secret chamber Salazar Slytherin had allegedly hidden away at Hogwarts, but also knew that no one had ever been able to find it. But then she didn’t think there was anyone who had ever discovered more of Hogwarts than the Marauders had and she really shouldn’t be surprised they had managed to locate it. “Why didn’t you go in?”

“Because neither one of us would want to accidentally unleash what is hiding there if the legends are to be believed.”

“Legends….you mean about the monster?” Heart skipping a beat, she swallowed. “You’ve seen what resides in the room?”

“No, but we have our theories about what’s in there,” there was something dark in his voice and she glanced at him curiously.

“Anything you are willing to share?”

He looked up at the pipes. “Taking into account what Salazar Slytherin was, the stories about what happened when the Chamber was opened before and the magical compounds in the sealing on the trapdoor, we believe it is a Basilisk.”

“When it opened….you mean to say the Chamber has been opened before?” Incredulous, she could only stare at him. “How do you know that?”

“It used to be Regulus’ favourite bedtime story to have Walburga tell him about the time Muggle-born were petrified at Hogwarts during her fourth year so I heard it through the walls too many times to count.”

“Assuming you mean a permanent state then there isn’t much that would actually be able to petrify a person, is there?”

“I do and there is actually only one thing that can permanently petrify a being if not given the antidote and that’s a Basilisk,” Sirius confirmed. “In nineteen forty-three several Muggle-born students were petrified over the course of several weeks until they suddenly stopped after the death of one in June.”

“A student died? And the school remained open?” Holding up her hand to keep him silent, she shook her head to clear it of stray thoughts and focus back on. “I assume they managed to revive the petrified students, so why didn’t they tell anyone what had happened?”

“I don’t think any of them actually saw what attacked them as they must have seen only his reflection or they wouldn’t have been petrified.”

“Right, because direct eye contact with a Basilisk means instant dead,” she remembered from their Defence classes and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear as she mused. “So they must have seen it through glass or mirrors or something like that.”

“Except for the girl who died, she had to have seen it directly,” Sirius confirmed. “But I don’t think she ever actually saw her attacker either or we’d have heard all about it from her as she does like her drama.”

“Her….Myrtle?” it wasn’t hard to connect the dots based on what he was saying. “Myrtle was the one who was killed?”

“Yes, Peeves told me her body was found by classmates in the second floor girl’s bathroom and archives confirmed a student died on the thirteenth of June nineteen forty-three. She was the last victim before a witness came forward to claim one of Hagrid’s pets was the culprit and he was expelled for it, effectively stopping the school from closing as the attacks had stopped.”

“Hagrid? They actually thought Hagrid was responsible?” Snorting in disbelief, Lily leaned against the wall across of him. “I mean, Hagrid’s crazy when it comes to dangerous animals, but even he wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring a Basilisk to a school full of children.”

“Only a Parselmouth would be capable of controlling one and he certainty isn’t one so I don’t know why they ever believed him to be responsible.”

Humming in agreement, she looked back at the pipes. “Did no one place the link between the petrification and a Basilisk?”

“It seems not and although the House-elves warned the Headmaster of that time about the pipes, their worries were brushed away.”

“The Headmaster back then knew about these pipes and didn’t think they were relevant? Did they not even follow them to see where they lead?” Incredulous she looked at her companion, only to see him shrug.

“These pipes are enchanted, you wouldn’t even be able to enter it without receiving a severe backlash of magic, so even if they had wanted to, I don’t think they were even able to investigate them.”

“How are the pipes enchanted?”

“The tunnels can only be entered by a Parselmouth, everyone else will be blasted away. Not even House-elves can enter them and they avoid them as the plague.”

“So it’s unlikely that they ever found the true culprit as it’s an extremely rare skill to possess,” it was something Snape had spoken about several times; how he’d have loved to have possessed the skill to show he possessed the essence of a true Slytherin.  
At the time she hadn’t fully understood his interest in it until Pandora had eventually told her how a Parselmouth could only be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin and by definition alone had to be a dark wizard and to be avoided at all costs.

As she mused on what she could remember of Parselmouths, her mind drifted back to what Sirius had said before about exploring the tunnels with James and her heart skipped a beat as she realised what exactly he had revealed, probably even without realising it as she knew it was not something one would easily admit to unless they were proud of the skill.

But despite the warnings and stories she had heard about the skill, she couldn’t find any fear in her as she knew Sirius and anyone who would ever dare to call him evil would have to deal with her as there was not an evil bone in his body. 

And it had to be Sirius as between him and James, he was the one who descended from a long line of Slytherins which probably lead all the way back to Slytherin.

“Based on the timeline and the school records of that time, James and I have gotten a fairly good suspicion on who the true culprit was, even if we would never be able to prove it,” Sirius truly seemed unaware of where her thoughts had gone and glancing at his relaxed posture across of her, she decided it didn’t matter and focused back on the conversation taking place.

“Who?”

Shifting, Sirius coughed. “The witness who came forward to frame Hagrid was called Tom Riddle.”

“All right, and why would you think he was responsible?”

“He received a trophy for special services for the school at some point, I’ve seen it in the trophy room and there was something on it that caught my attention,” shifting again, Sirius continued. “His full name was Tom Marvolo Riddle and while the name Riddle is Muggle, Marvolo is an old wizarding name.”

“It does sound wizardy,” grimacing at her own use of the word, she thought that perhaps she hung out too much with James after all.

“The last known person with that name is Marvolo Gaunt, a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin and a dark wizard,” Sirius shifted once more, eyes tightening as he did and Lily was forcefully reminded that he still hadn’t been looked at properly.

“Let’s talk while we walk,” she pulled him away from the wall and indicated he should lead the way. “So you think Tom Riddle was the son of Marvolo and as such, a Parselmouth?”

“A descendant at least, probably through the female line as I know the last male descendant is in Azkaban for life,” Sirius made no objection to continuing, leading them through the passages without hesitation. “And we were wondering why a Half-Blood would hate Muggle-born so much or why the descendant wasn’t known to the old families as there’s nothing about him in any of the magical descendant books so James and I went through the school records and discovered he was an orphan.”

“You mean to say he didn’t know he was a descendant of Slytherin?” Incredulous, Lily looked at Sirius as they walked up stairs.

“He must have discovered his ancestry somehow or he’d never have managed to find the Chamber, but that’s not really where I’m getting at. After graduation, he worked at Borgin and Burkes for a few years before vanishing into thin air.”

“Where did he go?”

“Nowhere, not really,” the look Sirius shot her then was bordering on dark as he came to a stop and half turned to fully face her. “He just dropped the name Riddle completely to take on another one and although we’ve not yet been able to determine why he did so, James thinks he did so to get rid of his Muggle’s father’s name.”

“What name did he take on?” Heart hammering in her throat, Lily vaguely realised Sirius was an amazing storyteller as she had never been as interested in history as in right that moment.

“Voldemort.”

Breath catching, Lily could only stare at her friend in shock; all the dots quickly connecting as her mind raced through all he had told her. “Voldemort opened the Chamber of Secrets and unleashed the Basilisk upon students, killing Myrtle. He was trying to get rid of Muggle-born back then already?” 

“That’s what we think,” Sirius confirmed softly. “But like I said, we would never be able to prove it.”

“Even so, the links you managed to connect….Peter and Remus weren’t involved in this?” He hadn’t once mentioned the other two Marauders and now she wondered if perhaps they didn’t know about any of this.

“No, when we discovered the pipes and trapdoor and realised exactly what we found, we deemed it too dangerous to share with them. Remus’ curiosity would make him try to convince Wormtail to investigate a way in, regardless of possible danger since he seems to think we are invincible.”

“I understand, but did neither of them ever show any curiosity to these pipes whenever you passed them?”

“They might not actually know they exist,” Sirius admitted. “These are the House-elf passages, they use them to move from one point to the other unseen. Tiffy showed them to me so that I could use them to move around unnoticed if desired or needed and in turn I took James into them with me when we had to hide from a group of my relatives.”

“I shouldn’t be here, should I be?”

“We’re trying to avoid people so it’s all right, but I’ve never had a need to hide with the others and since they’re not half as interested in exploring as James and I are...”

“You’ve never seen the need to share their existence with them,” nodding in understanding, she knew there was a good chance that Remus and Peter had no idea of Sirius’ little secret and committing it to memory, she vowed to never bring it up in conversation.

“Does that mean they’re not on the Map then, either?”

“No, but then so are several other passages we know off. We kept them off the Map so that even if the Map should fall into the wrong hands, we’d still have places to go and hide in without being detected.”

“Smart move,” she glanced at the wall they were passing, imagining miles and miles of pipes running just unseen behind it. “You think the Basilisk might still be alive? It’s been over thirty years since it was last opened and who knows how many years it’s already been alive before that if Salazar truly was the one to lock in in there.”

“It shouldn’t be, but would we really want to take the chance it might be?” Sirius asked as he held out his hand to help her step over some loose stones she hadn’t been able to see in the semi-dark.

“No, we wouldn’t,” letting the subject die, she looked at him. “How are you seeing where we’re going?”

“One of the benefits I reaped from Padfoot is that I can see very well in the dark, aside from Peter, we all see fairly well in the dark.”

“So not only your sense is smell is further developed, your eyes are as well. What about hearing?” she asked interested.

“All my senses are developed about four times better than regular humans. Remus and Peter hear twice as strongly as others while James’ hearing hasn’t really improved. He has better eye sight than Remus in the dark, though.”

“A stag can see better than a werewolf?”

“Technically, he shouldn’t as a werewolf’s senses should be as good as a dog’s, but he’s lived a rather sheltered life compared to most other werewolves and as such, we suspect his senses haven’t developed as much as they should have.”

“While I’m absolutely sure you and James have experimented a lot with your abilities whenever you could.”

“Exactly, but what’s really funny is that James can see in the dark better than Remus while he’s practically blind without his glasses.”

“And he still sees better than Remus?” Incredulous, she looked at him.

“He does, we need to go through to the right here.”

“Where exactly are we now?”

“On the seventh floor, these passages run through the entire school as well,” he came to a stop to glance at something in front of him, holding up a hand to quiet her for a moment before reaching for her hand and pulling her through something thick and heavy, immediately forcing her to throw up a hand to shield her eyes as they were in a brightly lit corridor.

“Sorry, I kind of forgot it’s still before curfew so the lights would still be on,” he apologised.

“I suppose I could forgive you this once,” she teased, blinking a few times rapidly to adjust her eyes. “Come on, I’m sure James will be beside himself with worry.”

“I send Peeves with the message that we’re all right,” taking her hand again, Sirius led the way to the Fat Lady’s portrait and Lily only barely managed to bite her tongue in time to not remind him that James was unlikely to simply take Peeves’ word for it; well aware Sirius would know that, too.

“My word, what happened to the two of you, you’re positively filthy!”

“A building collapsed around us and then we had a few alterations with some Death Eaters, nothing we couldn’t handle, though,” Sirius’ charming smile was answered immediately as the Fat Lady looked at them both worriedly. “And I actually don’t know if the password has changed already since last week.”

“It has,” the Fat Lady confirmed, smiling warmly. “You remember my favourite drink, though?”

“Of course, Gigglewater,” immediately the portrait swung back and smiling, Sirius indicated Lily should go first. “Thank you, Lady.”

“It is my pleasure, love,” the Fat Lady winked at him as they passed before swinging shut behind them again and Lily rolled her eyes at the clear favouritism as the Fat Lady never helped her out like this.

“Why don’t you grab your bathroom supplies and clean clothes and shower at our dorm. I’m sure the guys are waiting for us and it’ll save time.”

She actually didn’t look forward to splitting from him just yet so while he waited at the foot of the stairs, she ran up to her own dorm to collect everything she might need before hurrying down again and joined him up to his dorm where the other three Marauders were indeed already waiting.

James stopped his obvious pacing the moment the door opened and they had only narrowly managed to close it again before he was at their side; only slowing at the last possible second as to not slam into them as he pulled them into a three-way hug.

“Thank Merlin you are both all right,” he breathed out, pulling back only to let his eyes scan them for himself.

“I have some cuts and bruises that need caring for and I got hit with a Crucio that still has lingering effects,” Sirius dutifully informed him as brown eyes lingered on him before turning her way.

“I’m fine, F-my cuts and bruises were already taken care of,” she managed to stop herself from saying Frank’s name just in time.

“While you hid yours,” correctly deducing Sirius’ actions, James ran a hand through his hair before pulling Sirius’ shirt up far enough to reveal a deep looking gash in his side that would have alarmed Lily if he hadn’t already warned her about it and she could see it wasn’t bleeding any more so didn’t require immediate attention.

“I told Professor M you’d take care of me,” Sirius huffed. “I couldn’t avoid all the dark magic aimed at me as the ones targetting me were rather hell-bent on attacking me.”

“What do you need?” Peter had moved towards Sirius’ bed, bending down to pull out what looked like a first aid kit and placed it onto the bed even as James’ eyes snapped up.

“Blacks?”

“Going by their uncannily desire to cause as much bodily harm as they could, I suspect they were, though we’ll never know for sure as they vaporized.”

“Vaporized? What did you….oh...” James’ eyes widened as they met Sirius’ before tightening and he immediately pulled him back into his arms almost desperately; Sirius readily melting into his brother’s embrace.

The way the colour drained from James’ face told her that somehow, in that brief moment of contact, they had shared the memory of what had happened between them and her heart jumped as those warm brown eyes met her own searchingly.

“He protected me,” she smiled at him to reassure him she truly was all right and nodding, he refocused on Sirius; pulling back far enough to cup his face in his hands and brush his thumb over Sirius’ dirty cheek before pulling him close again.

Unlike with the others, Sirius didn’t fight James’ embrace at all, humming softly as he leaned into him and the simple display of trust and love between them made her smile before catching the uneasy look on both Peter and Remus’ faces.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened while James helps clean Sirius up and treats his wounds?” Remus suggested and although her stomach twisted at the idea of letting either one of them leave her sight, she nodded and after dumping her possessions onto James’ bed, took a seat on the floor.

Sirius hesitated, glancing at her. “Are you….”

“I’m fine,” smiling, she shooed him off, watching curiously as he instead moved to their supply cupboard and tossed her a bar of her favourite chocolate before disappearing into the bathroom with James while she told the other two what had happened.

“So Sirius managed to rebound Fiendfyre?” At her nod, Peter whistled impressed. “How many Death Eaters did he kill with that?”

“Merlin, so that’s why he’s upset,” choking on a breath, Remus ran a hand through his hair, glancing at the bathroom door, although Lily wasn’t quite sure why he looked so torn.

She didn’t think Sirius cared about the fate of a Death Eater, though it would explain the overly tactile behaviour of their rescuers. But Sirius had seemed annoyed by the mollycoddling instead of being comforted as one would expect from the way he had shifted away from them.

Biting her lip, she watched Remus berate Peter over his words, wondering if she had somehow misread Sirius’ reaction.

“But why?” Peter whined. “It’s something to be proud of, right? He took out Death Eaters.”

“They were human lives, Peter!”

“Yeah, but they were bad people and tried to kill them.”

“He’s not going to see it like that,” running a hand through his shoulder-length hair, Remus took a deep breath. “He was right in his actions, but they were still human beings and he killed them.”

“Oh...” it didn’t look like Peter understood, but he fell silent as Remus rose to his feet with a curse, pacing through the dorm until they heard the bathroom door open.

The sight of James striding inside with Sirius in tow settled the unease that had taken hold of her the longer they’d been out of sight, even as her eyes took in the sight of her surrogate brother in an unbuttoned pyjama top that revealed the scars covering his torso, thick and thinner lines criss crossing over his torso and standing out starkly on the parts of slender skin not covered in bruises.

“I forgot supplies,” James moved to the first aid kit while Sirius sort of hovered near the door opening and it occurred to her that this was the first time he was showing even a tiny part of his scars to her and although they were horrendous and made her want to wrap him up in a giant bubble to keep him safe from harm, she couldn’t help but feel humbled by the fact he wasn’t fully trying to hide from her any more.

Her earlier questions hadn’t scared him off as somewhere along the line, she had truly gained his trust to the point that he wasn’t consciously trying to hide himself fully any more and she couldn’t stop her heart from swelling at the knowledge even as her eyes caught onto the enormous bruising still forming on what parts of his shoulder and waist she could see.

She barely registered Remus’ sharp intake of a breath as she rose to her feet and made her way over to him. “That’s not a few bruises, that’s massive! Are you sure you don’t have internal bleeding?”

“I’m sure and James is already retrieving the Star-Grass Salve,” half turning to her, Sirius made a half aborted movement towards the buttons on his top, but she stopped him before he could so she could look at the bruising properly, pushing his pyjama top aside and ignoring the visible scars completely.

“Is that all from the explosion?” Pushing him backwards, she made him sit down on the bed where James was rummaging through the first aid kit, not even considering that he might not be open to being touched right now while so exposed.

“Mostly,” he looked up to her curiously, eyes scanning her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing that’s important right now, let’s focus on getting you treated first,” she tried to brush him off, but the look he gave her was enough to make her swallow and give in.

“It’s just….I’m sorry I didn’t realise.”

“Realise what?”

“That you were upset about what had happened and I should have. I didn’t think about what you were forced to do to save us until Remus pointed it out.”

A relieved laugh escaped him while James huffed as he dropped down beside Sirius, shifting his top aside a little to be able to treat the cut in his side with the supplies he’d gathered. “Merlin, I thought I’d misread your reaction. I don’t care the slightest about what happened to those Death Eaters.”

“I’m fine, but….you’re not upset then?” Automatically she dropped down onto Sirius’ other side, holding aside his top so James could reach the wound more easily.

“Not about Death Eaters,” huffing in disdain, Sirius looked at her, relaxing to her touch. “Why would I be upset about that?”

“You don’t care that you had to kill?” Remus sounded more upset than Sirius and she wondered if she had read him correctly after all.

“Why would I? They were trying to kill us.”

“They were human beings, killing...it’s never right,” a look of horror crossed over Remus’ features as he saw Sirius’ calm expression. “You truly don’t care, do you?”

“Should I show compassion to those who rain terror and fear down upon all those who are different? Care about monsters who torture and murder innocents simply for being alive?” Sirius’ words made Remus flinch back. “Death Eaters slaughter entire families simply for not believing in blood supremacy, rip them apart for the fun of it because in their eyes, the only people who are people are those who think like them. Monsters like that won’t stop simply because we disarm them and I refuse to hesitate to stop them for good.”

“I...” even as Remus seemed at a loss for words, Lily’s unease settled completely as she felt much the same way. When Voldemort had targeted Sirius, she hadn’t hesitated to try and blow him up and didn’t regret the attempt; the only thing she regretted was that she hadn’t been able to take more of them out and until Remus had made her doubt herself, she had believed Sirius to feel the same way and it was clear he did.

“We don’t kill if we don’t have to, but we won’t be held back from using lethal force if the choice is between them or us,” James added without looking up as he applied Dittany to the deep cut in Sirius’ side and Lily was relieved to see new skin immediately appear to make the wound look days old. “They wouldn’t hesitate to kill either one of us, so why would we hesitate to stop them in any way we can if it means protecting others?”

“You make it sound like you’ve already done so?” Peter looked awed while Remus’ accusing gaze turned conflicted as he seemed to see the sense in their words.

“Because we have,” James taped a piece of gauze onto the cut just to be safe and picked up the Star Gaze Salve to start applying it to the worst of the bruises and, despite having most of the scars on display with the way she was holding up his top, Lily still turned her face away to give him some sense of privacy.

“When?!” Remus’ eyes snapped up to them.

“During the Hogsmeade attack back in third year and probably during the Diagon Alley assault, too. I don’t think either of us truly kept a record, but I know Death Eaters were killed by our spells,” James answered. “I know Sirius saved my life by pulling a Death Eater into the path of a killing curse directed at me and someone I cursed while he was attacking Sirius landed wrongly, breaking his neck.”

“I never realised….” the conflict in Remus’ voice was nearly painful to hear and Sirius seemed to catch onto it.

“Just knocking them unconscious means they can be revived again and when you’re surrounded, it’s not something you can risk when it means the difference between life and death. We don’t kill if we don’t have to, but we won’t shy away from it either.”

Biting his lip, Remus nodded slowly and at the sound of James rising to his feet, Lily turned back just in time to see the scars disappear as Sirius touched the Rune on his wrist and he buttoned up his pyjama top while James cleaned the supplies away and washed his hands before moving to her, cupping her cheek in his hand.

“I’m sorry, I just took your word for it that you were fine, are you?”

“I am, I completely agree with everything you’ve said,” pressing a kiss into the palm of his hand, she reached up to squeeze his hand before glancing at Sirius again. “Is he truly all right? Fa- they insisted his magic was exhausted and he said he was fine, but I’d rather hear it from you because he’ll downplay his condition.”

“Someone’s getting to know you too well,” James teased Sirius and the other rolled his eyes.

“I’m fine, though I might have exhausted my core more than I originally thought,” Sirius answered with a grimace and that certainly explained why James was hovering more than usual as he’d have noticed the truth immediately. “I’ve never had to shield two separate people at the same time and thus forgot to shield myself.”

“Hence the impressive bruising. So your faltering shield had nothing to do with the healing bond you formed with Remus’ mother?” Only after she had spoken did it occur to her that she had no idea if Remus even knew about it, although the way Remus immediately tensed made it clear he was at least aware of that much.

“Your mum’s fine, I had someone trustworthy check on her. I had to isolate her from me quite abruptly so she wouldn’t receive echoes of pain from spells I couldn’t avoid and it’s caused her a bit of a headache, but she’s fine otherwise and is unaware anything happened,” he rubbed a hand over his face even as Remus deflated in relief.

“I’m not sure if it had so much to do with that or the fact that I’ve never tried to raise two shields in different places simultaneously, fight two dozen Death Eaters hell-bent on killing us and wrestling control of the Fiendfyre that the crazy lunatic tried to kill us with all at the same time.”

“Did you get her, though?” James clearly knew who he meant even as Lily was at a loss as she hadn’t seen who had cast the curse and even if she had, they all wore masks and cloaks so she wasn’t quite sure how Sirius had managed to differentiate between any of their attackers in the first place.

“No, unfortunately she was close enough to him to be shielded and was still with him when they fled.”

“Who are you talking about?” Looking between them, Peter looked utterly lost, making her relieved to know she wasn’t the only one.

“Bellatrix.”

“Your insane cousin?” Remus asked and it truly said something about the woman’s reputation that even Lily had heard of Bellatrix Lestrange; though she hadn’t realised the insane woman was actually related to Sirius or the woman had been one of their attackers.

“The one and only,” wincing as he moved, Sirius slipped off the bed to the ground and leaned against the bed carefully. “We’ll have to practice me dividing my shield as this sucks.”

Aware that he was probably aching everywhere, Lily winced in sympathy even as James hummed in agreement.

“We’ve never considered we might get separated yet both needing shielding at the same time,” he mused. “That’s an oversight we really couldn’t afford so it’ll be the highest on our list of things to train.”

“In a few days, though,” Lily said. “You’ll need to rebuild your reserves first and rest.”

“Yes Mum,” grinning at her, Sirius wiggled his bare toes before his expression tightened. “You should go shower as I’m sure Tiffy will arrive with food soon and I’d still like to take a look at your arm before we eat.”

“My arm’s fine.”

“Probably about as fine as his nerves are,” James scoffed in disbelief. “Go shower so we can treat your arm. We’ll talk more once you’re done.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if he went to sleep? I mean...”

“No, it’s high time you both knew the truth, preferably before the Prophet comes out,” his words made James sigh resigned while Remus tensed as if knowing what they were talking about.

Remembering how Sirius had said before that only she and Peter were in the dark, she found herself nodding and although it went against all of her instincts, she collected her bundle from James’ bed and disappeared into the bathroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Her heart pounded in her ears the whole time it took her to shower, every instinct in her screaming she was foolish for leaving and she returned to the dorm in record time; relaxing again the moment she caught sight of Sirius and James sitting side by side against the bed.

She wasn’t too surprised to see several dishes of food placed on the ground between the four waiting boys and taking in the way James seemed to share her desire to stay close to Sirius, took a seat between Sirius and Remus; holding out her arm when requested.

“It seems like you’ve got lucky as you only caught the backlash through our point of contact,” Sirius’ pleased little hum did little to make her feel better as she knew that meant he’d caught the full brunt of that attack, and if that was the backlash then she really didn’t ever want to deal with the real thing.

“James?”

Her boyfriend pulled a potion out of their first aid kit and handed it over along with a fork. “Eat something and then take this, it’ll help with the cramping of your muscles.”

“I take it you’ve already been given several potions?” Bemused, she watched Sirius nod dutifully so shifted to lean against the bed beside her boys.

“Did Tiffy think we both injured our arms?” She couldn’t help but ask as she accepted the plate of meatloaf from Sirius, looking at all the cut dishes on display while sliding a piece onto her own.

“She always does that for Sirius if he’s taking his meal up here for whatever reason,” Peter informed her. “Never does it for us, though.”

“That’s not entirely true, when I’m eating with him she does it for me, too,” grinning, James slid several pieces of carrot onto both his and Sirius’ plates. “I don’t think she entirely trusts either of us with a knife.”

“You did manage to stab yourself with one several times before you finally consented to wearing glasses,” Sirius teased him. “It’s entirely possible that she found out about that.”

“I really doubt that and she’s always cuts everything she delivers unless specifically requested otherwise,” James stuck out his tongue. “And besides, she only does it for me when I’m eating with you. She doesn’t cut any of the food whenever I have a date with Lily.”

“All right, so she doesn’t trust me with one,” readily correcting himself, Sirius reached forward to accept the dish of roasted chicken Remus held out to him to serve himself. “Which is kind of absurd since she didn’t protest when Peeves decided to teach me to juggle with knives.”

“Peeves did what?!” Horrified, Remus dropped the dish of chicken and Sirius just barely managed to catch it before it would topple over, the sudden movement making his body tense and Peter scrambled forward to take it from him before Lily or James could react.

“Really, Remus?” Shooting the brown-haired boy a truly impressive glare, Peter served Sirius several pieces before placing the plate back on the ground.

“What do you mean Peeves taught you juggling?” Ignoring Peter, Remus glared at James. “And you let that happen?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Confused, James looked up to him as Remus’ expression turned incredulous.

“With knives? What if he’d cut himself...or….or...”

Lily thought that was a rather stupid notion as Sirius was neither stupid or reckless and she was fairly sure Peeves would rather destroy the whole school than let anything happen to him, something James’ disbelieving scoff confirmed for her.

“Do you really think for even a single moment that Peeves would ever endanger him in any way? Or that Sirius himself would be stupid enough to use sharp knives?”

“We used breakfast knives,” Sirius confirmed, shooting Remus an unimpressed look. “We’ve only ever use dull objects in training and even then we’re always careful.”

“Well, it used to be fairly dangerous when his aim was still terrible,” James offered the plate of roast potatoes to Lily, but at the shake of her head, handed it to Peter instead, who dumped a generous amount onto his plate.

“It’s gotten a lot better since our target practice lessons, now he hits his intended target five times out of ten. James, could you...thank you,” accepting the plate of duchess potatoes offered, Sirius dropped some onto his plate. “You want some, too?”

Holding out her plate, Lily let him slide some on it. “How come there are both mashed and duchess potatoes?”

“Probably because Tiffy knows the two of you enjoy duchess,” James answered as he held out his plate as well so Sirius could put a few pieces on. “While those two dislike the added egg yolk and nutmeg and prefer mashed.”

“I can’t believe….” cutting himself off, Remus rubbed a hand over his face. “You know what, forget it, why do I bother? You’re all bloody insane.”

He stabbed a piece of roast potato onto his fork and stared at it as if it had personally wronged him so Lily did her best to stifle a laugh even as James dropped four pieces of beef onto Sirius’ plate without asking.

She hadn’t ever quite dined in such an odd setting before, but the boys seemed more than used to it as they exchanged each other’s favourites with barely a word and made themselves comfortable to begin eating. It was very different from their late night Yuri take-out moments, yet eerily similar at the same time as Peter and Remus sat crossed-legged across of them.

“Here,” glancing sidewards, she saw Sirius feed his cat; the small animal having appeared while she wasn’t paying attention and was now happily chewing on the small piece of chicken from her place at Sirius’ side while James tore another piece into smaller pieces to be fed to her once she was done.

They all took turns feeding Wizzy something small during dinner and to Lily’s surprise, between the five of them all the plates were polished clean despite the large amount of food that had been on them and Peter stacked the plates together on top of the cupboard for disposal later before coming back to sit across of them.

“All right, what was this about knowing the truth?”

“Right,” shifting to get more comfortable, Sirius took a deep breath. “But I need a solemnly promise from you and Lily before I start. James and Remus have already taken one.”

Giving their vows, Lily shifted in preparation for what they might learn.

“As you know, there is a war going on and aside from the Aurors, there are other people fighting.”

“Like you and Lily did today,” Peter nodded.

“There are a lot of people fighting, most on their own or with some friends; but there is also one larger group actively opposing him.”

“The group we met today,” realising where he was going with this, Lily knew she would finally get some answers. “You knew exactly who to call to for help, how long have you known of their existence?”

“The ones who responded today are only a fragment of their members. I’ve known of their existence since fifth year and they’ve known that I know in return since last year when a few of them gathered and forgot I wasn’t a member,” he hesitated. “And I’ve been helping them….”

“Wait, what? What do you mean helping them?” Horrified Remus cut him off. “You said James and you were asked to join after graduation, you never said you were already active!”

“You already knew about this?” The hurt in Peter’s voice was unmistakable, something Lily couldn’t entirely blame him for as it was clear they were the only ones out of the loop. “You all knew about this, but never said anything?”

“I couldn’t,” Sirius answered even as Remus shrugged.

“Why not?”

“Because you are not a target and as such technically not at risk. I made a vow to not speak about this until it became relevant to any of you, like it became relevant to Lily today,” he sighed. “And part of me didn’t want to burden you with this knowledge until after graduation.”

“If your hand hadn’t been forced today, you wouldn’t have shared this information with us now?” The shake of his head stung, but Lily couldn’t find it in herself to be mad about it as she understood just how dangerous this knowledge was and not just for them, but for those already out there fighting, too.

“But that’s all irrelevant because you’ve made your choice clear and so deserve to know the truth,” Sirius looked down at his hands as James slipped a hand in his in silent support. “Today showed me that you are already involved and Peter deserves the chance to make up his mind on what he wants to do before a choice is forced upon him.”

“What choice? To fight and be killed or to stand by and watch all of you die?” Choking out a wry laugh, Peter ran a hand through his long shaggy hair. “What kind of choice is that?”

“You have always known were we stood in this war and that we were going to be active in it,” although James’ words were soft, Peter still tensed back as if he’d yelled. “We’ve never had a choice in that.”

“Of course you have a choice,” Peter growled. “You could just keep low and you’d be fine.”

“Perhaps I would’ve been safe as a neutral party if I hadn’t acted at the Battle of Hogsmeade or openly showed my opinions, but Sirius never even had that and you’re addled if you think for even a moment I would stand by while they go after him,” his grip on Sirius’ hand tightened and his brother placed a hand on his shoulder in silent comfort.

“I….no, of course you wouldn’t,” swallowing thickly, Peter rubbed his hands together. “I just mean...you could run and hide, right? Go somewhere safe after graduation and lay low so they’d not be able to find either of you?”

“What? Abandon the people we love to Merlin knows what fates while we hide for the rest of our lives in the hope they won’t find us? That’s not us.”

“We have both always known that we would be forced to take a stance in this war one way or the other and we decided to be prepared for it,” Sirius softly took over, squeezing James’ shoulder. “We choose to learn as much as we could so that when the time came, we would be ready. It’s why we’ve been practising, training and learning all we could.”

“You make it sound like you’re soldiers,” grumbling, Peter’s hand-wringing became worse as he looked both conflicted and nervous because of their words.

“In a way, they kind of are,” it wasn’t something she really wanted to admit, but it was essentially the truth. All of their endless trainings and preparations; the seriousness with which they studied and took on each subject, every step they made had taken the ongoing war into consideration. And although it broke her heart to know those boys had never had the luxury of simply having fun, she also couldn’t help but be relieved for it.

“When Hogsmeade was attacked, we were all caught unawares and it was pure chaos. The only reason we were not all slaughtered like lambs is because they acted; they were prepared.”

“All that studying and practising we laughed about, they did it to prepare for this war as they knew it wasn’t just going away,” taking a shaky breath, Remus said. “Today was the third time one of us was involved in fighting and I doubt it will be the last time as James is right, they are targets and have been for a long time already.”

“All right, fine, we’ve been idiots for laughing at their preparations,” Peter admitted. “But why did they tell you then and not me? You are not a target because of your ancestry or stood out in the Hogsmeade battle.”

“No, but he is a werewolf and Voldemort is gathering as many of them as he can, promising them a better life while in reality he is using them as disposable foot soldiers,” Sirius shot Remus an apologetic look. “The chances that he will eventually approach Remus is enormous as it’s unlikely we will be able to keep his secret properly intact after graduation.”

“You don’t know that, I think we’ve done a pretty good job keeping the secret so...” the way Peter abruptly cut himself off at the sharp looks from both of their dark-haired companions was alarming, but before she could even form the question on her lips, Sirius spoke.

“No, we don’t and that alone wouldn’t have been enough, but I also know that Dumbledore is going to ask him to join right after graduation. When they gave me the heads up on that, I also received permission to speak to him about it so that he’d be able to make an informed decision without immediately agreeing simply because of who will be asking.”

“Because Remus has the hots for Dumbledore and will do anything he asks,” Peter nodded even as Remus squeaked undignified.

“I do not have the hots for Dumbledore, that’s disgusting.”

“Maybe not the hots, but if he’d ask you to jump off a bridge, you would jump without questions asked,” James contradicted him. “You feel indebted to him and it’s caused you to have an enormous blind spot in your ability to judge things properly.”

“I am not doing everything….”

“Not the point right now,” it was hilarious to watch all three of them shut up at Sirius’ sharp tone even though he didn’t even raise his voice. “I warned him because he needed to think of what he would be risking. If he joins, his parents might become targets as well and they won’t have the backing of old ancestry to keep them safe like our parents have.”

“My Mum doesn’t have the protection of a known name, either,” Peter protested.

“Which is why you need to think long and hard on what you want to do, too,” Sirius said. “Because if you decide to join, they won’t be able to protect your mother and she might become a target as well as revenge or to get to you.”

“Part of me wishes you had never told me as I’ve never considered that my choices in life might affect the lives of my parents even further than I already have,” Remus admitted. “But in the end, I am glad you told me, because you are right and I need to take them into consideration before just joining for the sake of it.”

“Our actions have consequences and every move we make is looked upon,” Lily agreed. “Our own knowledge can be dangerous if used wrongly.”

“Because knowledge is power,” something akin to understanding flashed through Peter’s eyes. “And if they knew we might have information about this group you’re talking about, they might target us just for that information. By not telling us anything, you’ve been protecting us.”

“Exactly. By not knowing anything, you won’t behave differently and it’ll keep you safer,” James said and nodding, Peter turned to Sirius.

“So why did you change your mind about telling me now, if I’m still not a target?”

“Like I said, Lily was targeted today simply because she was with me and I never want you to be caught by the same surprise.”

“That’s not entirely true, if I had stayed out of the way then the Death Eaters never even would have noticed me,” she refused to let him take the blame for her own actions. “But I made the choice to fight even before he tried to get me to join him.”

“What? Voldemort wanted you to join him?” Incredulous, Remus stared at her. “But you’re Muggle-born!”

“Hypocritical, I know,” glancing at him briefly, Lily turned her attention back to Sirius.

“I had already made the choice to fight alongside the two of you long before today,” it was easy to admit that much when seeing the guilt in Sirius’ eyes and she needed him to know he hadn’t forced her hand in anything or been responsible for her safety.

“They are specifically targeting Muggle-born and the things they are doing are awful and terrifying with very few people standing up to them. Those monsters today weren’t trying to disarm and the only reason I survived today is because I have been joining you both in training a few times.”

“You fought Voldemort himself and not only lived, you got him on the defence. Not many people manage that,” the soft praise from James helped lift her spirits a little, but she knew it hadn’t been her actions that had saved them today.

“Maybe not, but I wasn’t the one who kept us safe. Sirius managed to hit him with his own torture curse when he targeted me and somehow managed to not only deflect, but actively turn Fiendfyre back at them in a way I never even knew was possible.”

“The things we learn in class are useful, but they don’t prepare us, not really. We learn spells and potions, but nothing about the reality of people trying to kill you by any means possible, because the Death Eaters don’t play by the rules of the duelling club,” looking around, she saw that her words weren’t a surprise to Sirius and James while Peter and Remus looked apprehensive, still clearly not comprehending the full danger they were all truly in.

“From today forward, I want to join every training possible so that the next time, I will be able to fight alongside either of you without making you need to watch my back for me and taking injuries that really could’ve been avoided,” her words were met with grim dual nods and Sirius turned back to Peter.

“Think about what you’ve been told today carefully, unless something happens, you will have until graduation to make up your mind.”

“Because that is when at the very least the three of you will join this resistance group,” nodding, Peter ran a hand through his long hair again. “What is this group called?”

“The Order of the Phoenix.”

“And it’s run by Dumbledore?”

“Apparently, I haven’t met him personally yet in that setting.”

“In the two years you have been working with them, you’ve never met him?” Remus looked incredulous.

“No and I’m not officially a member yet as they don’t take people still in school,” hesitating, Sirius glanced at him. “But I have been passing on information I overhear at the Hog’s Head when I think it might be relevant to the cause and on occasions like today, when I know something is happening, I call them in.”

“And we are occasionally brought to a safe house if one of them is injured but can’t go to St Mungo's for treatment,” James added, making Remus pale.

“You’ve been helping, too?”

“Not half as much as he is, but in the ways I can, yes,” it was terrifying to realise just how deeply involved with the Order they both truly were already, but she knew their knowledge had saved their lives today and for that she was grateful.

“What do you do?”

“If there are too many injured, I help Sirius treat them and if I hear things in the hallways or through my duties as a Head Boy, I pass them on.”

“You know their members, too, then?” The grimness in Peter’s expression changed in awe as he stared at him. “Who are they?”

“If you choose to become a member after graduation and you are accepted, then you will learn their identities,” Sirius calmly told him.

“I know you said that you trust them, but just because you do, doesn’t mean we will, too,” Remus said. “Don’t we deserve to know who we might be fighting with?”

“No, their anonymity is too important to risk and I will not be the one to endanger them or their loved ones when you are not part of the group yet,” the finality of his voice made Remus clench his teeth.

“But you told James and Lily.”

“I only know the members I met today because they showed up to save our lives,” Lily spoke up, beginning to get annoyed by this blatant desire to know things that weren’t theirs to know. “I made a promise not to reveal their names and I refuse to tell you.”

“I was told about the group at large because we’ve always known we’d join and I met more members through my own involvement and through Sirius’ memories of today’s event,” running a hand through his hair, James shook his head as Remus opened his mouth to argue. “I’m not telling you any names as Sirius is right and their safety is not ours to risk to satisfy your curiosity. Some secrets are not meant to be shared without permission of the ones involved.”

“Of course not, I didn’t mean...” immediately Remus backed off at his words. “I’d never ask you to break a vow.”

“You trust them, though?” Peter looked between Sirius and James. “You trust them to have your back in a fight?”

“Yes.”

Peter’s eyes widened at the simple answer Sirius gave him, more than aware how difficult it was to gain his trust and biting his lip, he nodded. “I’ll give it serious thought and maybe Lily is right, I should join more trainings as well if I want to be prepared as well. I might not be a target due to my blood status, but I do hang out with you guys.”

“Nothing would make us happier than have you join our training sessions seriously,” smiling, James lightly bumped into Peter. “We’ll do our best to teach you all we know and whatever you choose, we will always have your back.”

“I know,” answering his smile, Peter nodded. “And I will try to have yours in return.”

“We’ve never though otherwise,” squeezing his shoulder, Sirius rose to his feet. “But if we are done speaking, we should clean up.”

“You mean we will clean up and you’re going to bed,” Remus contradicted him.

“I’ll bring these to the kitchen while you get ready and perhaps pick up some snacks for when you wake tonight,” Peter scrambled to his feet as well.

“You mean snacks for yourself.”

Sticking out his tongue at James’ teasing, Peter happily patted his large stomach. “This is all bouncing material. I’ve rarely broken a bone because of it, unlike you two skinny sods.”

“Can’t deny that,” laughing, Sirius poked his stomach. “It does make for good padding.”

Squeaking at the action, Peter danced out of his reach and moved to grab the pile of dirty dishes. “Go to bed.”

“Pushy,” fondly shaking his head, Sirius moved towards the bathroom and despite her apprehension to let them leave her sight, it occurred to Lily that she should probably return to her dorm now as it was obvious the Marauders were calling it an early night as James walked to the beds.

As Lily rose to her feet intending to go collect her belongings, Sirius turned back to her. “Would you prefer James’ bed or mine?”

Through the racing of her heart she wasn’t quite sure why Remus face-palmed and neither James or Sirius even noticed his reaction, but hurriedly took the offer with both hands before the brown-haired boy could protest. “What makes you more comfortable.”

“Merlin, there’s two of them now,” lifting his eyes to the ceiling as if to ask for guidance, Remus sighed and although Lily hadn’t meant anything inappropriate with her words, it was clear he was taking it that way.

“If you’d like, Padfoot could keep you company,” covering a yawn, Sirius didn’t seem to read anything in Remus’ reaction. “I think he would make for a more comfortable cuddle buddy than Prongs.”

“Wait...what?” The quickness with which Remus’ expression switched from despair to wide-eyed surprise was hilarious and Lily had to stifle a chuckle. “What do you mean cuddling with….you know?”

“About their Animagi forms? Almost as long as you’ve known that I know your little secret,” shrugging, Lily ignored his surprised squeak to smile at Sirius. “I’ll be fine, but I’ll keep the offer in mind should the desire strike me.”

James laughed at Remus’ goldfish impression as he tossed an extra pillow beside his own and turned down his bedding. “Go get ready for bed, I assume you’ve brought your toothbrush?”

“I did,” following Sirius to the bathroom, they brushed their teeth side by side, after which Sirius slipped outside so she could relieve herself in privacy before making her way back to the others where James was standing beside his own bed with a pillow in his hands.

“Tiffy exchanged the beddings this morning, so everything’s fresh,” he assured her as if she’d give a single care to that, looking at her hesitantly. “Would you mind if I joined you both tonight?”

There was a tiny, almost inaudible, sound of incredulity from behind her but it hardly registered as all the tension washed away as she suddenly understood Sirius’ question.

He hadn’t asked her which bed she wanted to borrow for the night; he’d asked her which bed she would prefer to share and it occurred to her that although Remus clearly didn’t understand or feel this overwhelming need to stay close, to not let him leave out of arm’s length, Sirius did.

Her stomach uncurled as it was clear James did understand, actually felt the same kind of desperate need to stay close and just hold on and she was relieved by it, even if the offer itself was entirely inappropriate.

But even if Remus and Peter might find it indecent, she couldn’t bring herself to care about what was acceptable if it meant being able to remain as close to both of her boys as possible for the time being and if anything, there wasn’t a safer place for her to be than with those two as it wouldn’t even occur to either of them to try and take advantage of her in any way.

“Do you prefer the left or the right side?”

“Right, Sirius usually ends up on his left side during the night and likes to curl into my side so I usually sleep on the right,” the relief in his eyes was overwhelming and all the tension left his body, cementing to her that he truly felt the same way she did.

“You don’t mind?” Leaning in close to him to avoid Remus from overhearing, she couldn’t help but ask her boyfriend, aware how it might look.

“Mind what?”

“That I seem unable to let Sirius leave my sight?” At her words, a strangled laugh escaped James and he pulled her close to press a kiss to her temple.

“After the Hogsmeade battle, I couldn’t bear letting Sirius leave my sight for weeks and stuck to him like glue. You went through something traumatic today and I think it’s only natural that you want to keep him in your sights, I’ve seen several battles already and I still feel the same overwhelming desire every time, too and I know Sirius feels the same way as he wouldn’t have asked you to stay if he didn’t.”

His words made her feel better and she nodded as he turned back to the bed, placing the pillow he’d still been holding beside the others. “I haven’t got a blanket as Sirius can’t handle them, but I do have several plaids you can pull over yourself should you get cold.”

It was only then that she realised that unlike the thick scarlet blankets that were on Peter and Remus’ beds and that all the beds in her dorm had, there was comforters on the other two beds instead in the same colouring.

“I didn’t know we could request comforters,” she mused, letting her hand slide over it, relishing in the feel of the soft material compared to the scratchy blankets she was used to on her own bed as James retrieved Sirius’ comforter to place it on her side of the bed for her to use.

“I don’t think we can,” he hesitated, fingers clenching around the comforter he had been fluffing up for her. “But Sirius doesn’t react well to being restrained by materials most of the time and once Tiffy realised that, she exchanged the heavy blankets for light comforters.”

“I’m glad she did,” she didn’t need to ask why their brother didn’t react well to that, smiling as she realised exactly why James himself had a comforter, too, since she knew Sirius had a lot of nightmares and always found comfort by curling up with James after them. “Does he know why you arranged for a comforter for yourself?”

“I….I don’t think so,” blinking surprised at her knowledge, James flushed and her heart swelled even more with love for her boyfriend. “But I kind of prefer comforters, too, so it’s a win-win for me, too.”

“You are a marvel, James Potter,” she kissed him softly before pulling back, relishing in the adorable flush that spread over his cheeks and turned towards the bedside table where she had placed her toiletry bag to pull out a hair elastic and give him time to regain his composure.

Making quick work of braiding her long hair so that it wouldn’t bother her bed companions, she couldn’t help the nervous pool forming in her stomach at the long time Sirius was taking in the bathroom.

“What’s taking him so long?”

“From the way it got colder just after you left the bathroom, I assume Peeves joined him,” James smiled reassuringly, flush only now fading. “Peeves often checks in just before bed after something happens, just to make sure he’s all right and to say good night if he’s still awake.”

“They’re not hiding in the bathroom because of me, are they?”

“No, I don’t think Peeves would care the slightest about your presence,” Remus spoke up from his own bed where he was cleaning some items away, doing his best to ignore her presence and although there was a slight twitch of guilt in her at his discomfort, she ignored it. “He usually seeks Sirius out when he is alone, preferring to talk to him then.”

The blatant disinterest or care for anyone that Peeves always showed might once upon a time have annoyed her, but like with so many things, her friendship with the Marauders had allowed her to see a whole different side of the malicious and often cruel Poltergeist.

For all of his cruel and taunting remarks and malicious pranks towards pretty much everyone, the ghost tried to go easy on the other Marauders, Pandora and her when pulling one of his pranks. But he didn’t really speak to any of them unless they were with Sirius or James.

So him seeking out Sirius when he was alone fit perfectly with the behaviour she had become used to as it was him the Poltergeist was closest to.

Stretching, James left her side to move to the bathroom, entering without knowing. “Aren’t you going to say hello to the rest of us?”

“Hello,” Peeves’ high voice deadpanned, making James laugh as he moved out of the way so Sirius could emerge with the Poltergeist following him.

“Were you being an overprotective mother hen again?”

“I am not a mother hen,” Peeves protested, moving around Sirius to poke James’ side.

“So you don’t deny that you are overprotective?” Grinning James sidestepped the ghost’s pale fingers while Sirius moved to the bed and her mouth dropped open as Sirius lightly kicked the end of the bed frame three times; enlarging it to twice it’s regular size.

“How...” it seemed like James shared her surprise.

“I figured you would need more space if you were going to fit three people into a single bed,” it was Peeves who answered as he wrapped his arms around Sirius from behind, resting his chin on the other’s shoulder and although his words made her flush, she just knew he wasn’t trying to make fun of them.

If anything, from the way the ghost held Sirius close, it might just be that the ghost shared the same feelings she did and understood their reasoning perfectly.

The normally wicked orange eyes were soft as Sirius leaned back into him, a hint of mischief entering his eyes as James frowned. “Why have you never told us about this before?”

“Never had the need for it before,” Peeves shot back, pulling back from his favourite student to gently push him towards the bed. “Get in.”

Watching Sirius crawl into the enlarged bed on the right, shuffling into the middle as if instinctively knowing she wanted to be on the left side and she blinked as orange eyes met her expectantly; understanding the unspoken order she quickly slid underneath her personal comforter on Sirius’ right side while James slipped underneath the comforter he’d share with Sirius.

The bed was large enough that she could technically stay all the way on her own side without ever coming near the boys and still share a bed, but she didn’t hesitate to shuffle closer when Sirius offered a hand to her once the two had curled up together.

Shifting onto her side so she was within range to comfortably hold hands with him, she smiled as he curled her hand towards his chest and James’ larger hand came to rest over both of theirs as if the single touch kept them secure and safe.

It was surreal to watch the Poltergeist lean in to tuck the comforter against James’ back before he gently tucked Sirius in securely while still keeping it loose enough the dark-haired boy wouldn’t feel trapped before pulling up one of the plaids from the end of the bed to lightly drape over him as well.

It was even more so when he turned to her and whispered. “Do you want to be tucked in loose or tight?”

“I...loose,” at her soft answer, he loosely tucked her in as well, giving a simple nod at her thanks before turning to gaze down at Sirius, who, to her utter surprise, appeared to have fallen asleep already as his eyes were closed and his breathing inaudible.

She held her breath as Wizzy jumped onto the bed and made herself comfortable against his throat, but he didn’t even twitch and the orange eyes softened even more, every pore of his body radiating love and affection as he reached out to pet the cat once before gently brushing the fringe out of Sirius’ eyes before straightening.

As James shifted to tuck his brother more securely into his arms, Peeves patted his head. “You….”

“Will call you or Tiffy if anything is the matter,” James promised in a whisper, smiling up at the Poltergeist and the ghost nodded, gaze travelling down to his sleeping charge once more time before drifting away.

“Good night.”

“Night Peeves,” they both whispered at him to not wake Sirius up and as the ghost disappeared through the wall, a sudden fatigue washed over her and she blinked sluggishly.

“Sleep, you’re safe here,” softly squeezing her hand, James smiled at her warmly as he seemed to have been expecting it and she smiled as she recognised her body was finally letting go of the last of her adrenaline with both of her boys safely within reach. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” distantly she heard Remus say something to a returning Peter, but the words themselves didn’t register as the sound of soft purrs nearby lulled her to sleep; secure in the knowledge that the people she loved the most were safe and sound at her side.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to a terribly painful personal loss in my life today, I can't guarantee the last chapter of this story will be posted as scheduled next Friday. It will be posted, but probably a week or so later than planned. These last two chapters hit a little too close to home right now and I'm only posting this as planned because a promise is a promise.
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to the sweetest, most wonderful and brilliant woman in the world who I love more than anything in the world and will miss terribly.
> 
> You have always been my greatest supporter in everything I've ever done and my best friend and I miss you so much already.
> 
> I love you.

Blinking wearily at the early morning sun, Remus waved his father goodbye and shivered as the cold wind greeted him harshly as his father Disapparated.

Pulling his thick coat more securely around himself, he left the alley and made his way across the street to the Evans house; James and Lily already waiting for him by the door by the time he found a path through the thick snow.

“Morning,” his bespectacled friend grinned. “You’re late, even Pete’s already here.”

“Really?” Surprised, Remus came to a stop before them. “I thought he wasn’t coming?”

“Sirius got last minute approval from his Mum to have him join after all so she dropped him off before she left for work,” being ushered out of the cold weather, Remus handed James his coat.

“Bet he wasn’t too happy about that.”

“That’s an understatement, he’s currently nursing his fourth cup of coffee to try and wake up,” Lily smiled a little, looking up to him tiredly.

“And Sirius?”

“Here,” came the quiet answer as Sirius came down the stairs, Peter appearing from the living room. “Morning sleepyhead.”

“Morning, you’re entirely too awake already for the hour and this type of weather,” Remus grumbled.

“Whose bright idea was it to meet up at nine in the morning?” Peter yawned.

“We’ll need to start early if we are aiming to finish today,” stretching a little; James hurried to cover a yawn while Remus turned to Lily.

“What’s the plan?”

“I was hoping the two of you could join Sirius in cleaning the first floor and attic. There shouldn’t be anything of value left any more as Petunia already looked through everything so if you could just pack up, that would really help,” Lily took a deep breath, smiling gratefully as James wrapped an arm around her in silent support and Sirius placed a hand on her shoulder.

“James and I will tackle my room as I will need to go through everything there to see what I find worth keeping,” she reached up to squeeze Sirius’ hand and nodded to them. “Thank you for your help, all of you.”

“That’s what we are here for,” Remus shrugged and Peter nodded mutely, shifting a little uncomfortable as Dursley’s heavy footsteps could be heard nearby as Lily’s sister yelled at him to find something.

Sirius seemed to be the only one not bothered by the yelling as he pressed a kiss against Lily’s temple. “I’ve begun boxing all the clothing, you want to bring those to that charity shop we called yesterday, too? And are you absolutely sure there is nothing you would like to keep from upstairs?”

“You already helped me put aside the few items I really wanted to have and Petunia took mostly everything else. Mum and Dad would’ve wanted the lot to go to charity,” tears suddenly formed in her eyes. “I don’t even know how to get everything to the Red Cross without using magic.”

Sirius shrugged. “We use my van, though you will need to give directions as I don’t know the way.”

Remus turned to see a big black van parked next to an obscure sports car, surprised to learn his friend owned such a car.

“Where did you get a van?” Peter seemed to share his surprise as he pressed against the small side window for a better view.

“The toy store,” at their disbelief, he shrugged again. “The neighbours would get suspicious if we didn’t load anything into a car or truck. So I figured that a transfigured toy van with some modification to make it run and under an Undetectable Expansion Charm would be the best way to prevent unwanted attention.”

“You’re brilliant, I didn’t even think of that.”

“I told you we’d take care of everything. You just concentrate on collecting what you want to keep, we’ll do the rest,” Sirius’ words made Lily look dangerously close to bursting into tears, so Remus hurriedly clasped his hands together.

“Right, lots of work to do, so let’s get started.”

Nodding in agreement, they all made their way upstairs.

“Should we find anything I think has any value to you, I’ll have them set it aside,” Sirius promised as they split up on the first floor and he led them into the master bedroom without hesitation, where several boxes were already open but still empty.

“I’ve already cleaned out the spare room and bathroom so we just need to finish this bedroom and tackle the attic,” he informed them. “We can’t use Expansion Charms on these as they’ll be left with Muggles, but I’ve placed temporary Feather-light Charms on them to make them easier to carry.”

“How long have you been working here already? I thought you left school early to take care of some properties that were sold?” Eyeing the work already done, Remus calculated Sirius must’ve been at it for hours already.

“I’ve been Apparating back and forth so I could help Lily in between meetings.”

“You’ll be getting a lot of practice Apparating,” there was no mistaking the envy in Peter’s voice; though Remus couldn’t entirely fault him as the rest of them had to wait for the official delayed lessons in January to be able to pass their exam and Apparate freely like their friend already could.

But he also understood why their dark-haired companion had applied for early tests early that year as he needed to be able to travel freely to the Muggle world and back to take care of his inheritance.

To this day he still wasn’t sure if the Ministry had granted him consent due to his last name or James’ or because they truly understood the logic behind his application; but either way Sirius had passed his exams early already and was officially allowed to Apparate.

And it wasn’t like the rest of them hadn’t learned how to Apparate already; they just couldn’t do it legally yet. So he wasn’t quite sure why both he and Peter felt put out by their friend’s official permit.

“Didn’t you have to go to the Notary office yesterday?” Suddenly remembering Sirius’ absence the day before, Remus ran a hand through his hair. “Remind me what you had to do there again?”

“Signing several papers to finalise the sale of a few of the last few properties I had put up for sale,” Sirius said. “There are only two houses left to sell now.”

“You really sold everything else already?” Awed, Peter looked up to their friend.

“Took long enough in my opinion so if you still want a house, this is your last chance.”

“Thanks, but I’m good,” smiling, Peter clasped his shoulder. “It really didn’t take long to sell everything, though. Normally a house is on sale for several months before they find a buyer and you managed to sell over two hundred properties in that same amount of time.”

“It probably helps that they’re all spread out over the country and the real estate market is doing well at the moment,” shrugging, Sirius sighed. “Truth be told, I’m about done with the constant travelling up and down to talk about plumbing, waste charges and rebuilding permits I know nothing about.”

“The downside of being a landlord, I suppose,” biting back a laugh at the glare shot his way, Remus suppressed a yawn. “Upside is that you’ll learn a lot about house maintenance.”

“Yeah, I could’ve gone my whole life without learning about some things,” picking up a piece of clothing, Sirius began to fold it. “And I’m never doing any plumbing any more, people are disgusting.”

“And just how do you suppose you’re going to avoid doing that?” Peter inquired as he retrieved a half empty box and brought it to the bed Sirius was folding on so he could deposit the folded shirt into it.

“I’ve put the official handling of any maintenance and any other problems into the hands of a third party so if something’s wrong with the properties I still own, I am not going to have to personally oversee anything.”

“Won’t that cost a lot of money?”

“Trust me, it’s worth every sickle to never have to discover a single thing about clogged toilets ever again,” shivering, Sirius pulled a face. “Do remind me to thank your mother for her advice, by the way.”

Taking his word for it as Remus had never had to deal with a clogged toilet before, Remus moved forward to start folding clothes as well. “So now you’re just reaping the benefits of being a landlord. How many properties do you still own?”

“About fifty in England, thirty in Scotland and twenty in Ireland; it are mostly apartments and houses in the city, but there are some cottages in the country as well.”

Whistling impressed, Peter stopped his folding. “You’re keeping all of those?”

“I don’t really have a choice until the lease runs out for the current tenant. Once their lease runs out, the houses will automatically be put up for sale but there’s about fifty long term tenants with no specific end date for their lease that I’m not just going to throw out of their homes.”

“Fair enough, but those whose tenancy runs out, will they be kicked out?”

“They will have first buyers choice if they are interested, but else they’re going to have to move as I’m not going to renew any rental contract. I’ve given my contract person at the Notary office power of attorney so he can accept offers and arrange everything without my input.”

“Why would you do that?”

“We don’t know what will happen in the future,” hesitating; Sirius looked out of the window. “Chances are I might not make it out of the war alive.”

“That’s nonsense, you’re one of the most powerful wizards I know!” Peter bristled, alarm flashing through his eyes.

“No one is invincible, Pete.”

Something cold ran down Remus’ spine at the serious words and his stomach turned at the solemn expression in his best friend’s eyes as the other gave a wry smile; but all saliva seemed to have disappeared out of his mouth, leaving him unable to speak.

“What if the unthinkable happens and….what would happen to your properties then?” Peter asked softly.

“James will become responsible for them since he’s my brother and if he’s unavailable the responsibility will go to Lily and then Pandora. Though any problems will mostly be taken care of by the third party I’ve hired,” frowning, Sirius moved to the window to close the curtains and turned on the light. “But enough of this talk, if we don’t get started we will be here all day.”

A sweep from his wand made all the clothing in the nearest cupboard neatly fold themselves into a box; a few handkerchiefs floating over to the bedside table.

“Should we be using magic here?” Raising an eyebrow, Remus watched as some loose Muggle change appeared out of pockets and came to rest on the bedside table as well.

“As long as we don’t use magic in sight and carry the boxes out manually, we can do most of the work this way,” Sirius taped the box shut when it was full and Peter hurried over to pick it up and move it to the hallway.

“I reckon Lily might’ve been right,” huffing out a laugh, Remus took care of the second cupboard while Peter took over taping the filled boxes shut.

“About?”

“That you are brilliant,” a few items of clothing left his magical grip at a movement from Sirius’ wand, making Remus watch as the selected clothing settled down into two small piles on the ground before the bedside table. “What’s wrong with those?”

“The left pile is in too bad a shape to be considered for donation and the right one are items I think Lily might want to keep,” Sirius pulled a long garment bag out of the mostly empty closet and carefully placed it down on the ground as well. “Let’s bring these to the car before we take care of the furniture.”

Remus felt uncomfortably self-conscious under the suspicious glare Dursley gave them as they travelled up and down the stairs repeatedly with boxes; a sentiment shared by Peter if his twitchy behaviour was any indication, though Sirius didn’t even seem to notice the man’s presence as he cheerfully whistled a song.

“Pete, why don’t you go to the attic to see what’s there while Remus and I take care of the last items here?” He suggested after their last trip.

“Sure, how do I know what she might want to keep, though?”

“Just put everything you find on the ground, we can have a look at it once we’re all there to determine if it might be anything she’ll want to keep. Don’t use magic there under any circumstances, though.”

“Right,” as Peter hurried back upstairs, Sirius turned to the closet and shrank it.

“If you take the bedside tables, I’ll follow with the closets.”

“Sure. What do we do with the leftover clothing?”

“They go in the garbage bag I left in the hallway by the spare room and the clothing I think Lil might want to keep go into a separate box so she can look at it back home.”

It was quick work to bring everything downstairs in one go after Sirius took care of any dust remaining with a quick spell and Remus left him to undo the shrinking charms on the furniture in the van to return to the warm house, Dursley moved out of the shadows to block his path.

“You’re a freak,” Dursley sneered as he stared at him.

The insult was much milder than many of the things Snape and the other Slytherins had thrown at him over the years, but Remus still self-consciously flinched as he was reminded of the three fresh scratch marks running under his eye Sirius hadn’t been able to heal.

“Call him a freak ever again and I will rip you apart.”

Dursley wasn’t the only one to heavily startle at the quiet steely voice behind them and Remus felt his stomach clench as he realised his friend had heard the insult and clearly didn’t appreciate it one bit.

The aristocratic air of contempt colouring Sirius’ expression made clear just how far more superior he was compared to Dursley; the quiet display of unspoken power and Pure-Blood dominance radiating from his entire being something the other man could clearly sense regardless of not knowing exactly what it meant.

A penetrating odour of urine infiltrated Remus’ nostrils as steely cold grey eyes stared the inferior man down with a sure promise in them; though it took him a moment to realise Dursley was the source of the stench as the man had lost control over his bladder.

Sirius huffed in obvious disdain; moving forward to push past Dursley but the man jumped out of his way so hastily, he slipped on an icy patch of snow and landed harshly on his behind in the substance he’d only just lost with a terrified squeak.

But Sirius didn’t even dignify him with a glance; the man tensing in obvious humiliation as he realised he wasn’t even worth a second glance to a boy several years his junior as Sirius moved back inside without another word and Remus hurried after him.

“Siri...”

Sirius didn’t respond to his plea as they made their way upstairs, though he stopped when James stuck his head out of Lily’s bedroom as they neared.

“Everything all right?”

“Just putting some garbage where it belongs,” the coldness had vanished out of Sirius’ eyes as he smiled at James with the same warmth and gentleness Remus was familiar with.

“You sure?” James’ worried expression eased up at the smile, giving an apologetic one in return. “We shouldn’t need much longer to sort everything out. We’ve decided it’s just easier to pack everything up and go over it back home piece by piece.”

“Fine by me, might be less painful that way, too. We’re going to the attic now and if we are done before you are, we’ll get started on the kitchen.”

“If you find a big red soup pan, I really would like to have that,” Lily’s muffled voice came from inside the room.

A single sweep from Sirius’ wand caused a shrill shriek of fear from downstairs, moments before he caught the pan that came soaring towards them. “Got it.”

Snorting, James accepted it when handed over; presumably passing it on to Lily behind the door he was sitting behind. “I thought we weren’t going to scare the locals?”

“Some locals don’t deserve any better,” grinning at the muffled thanks from behind the door, Sirius moved towards the attic stairs with a little wave, making James laugh before his head disappeared and the door closed again.

“Come on, Pete’s going to be worried on what’s keeping us.”

“Siri...” Remus reached out to grab Sirius’ wrist to make him stop, intending to tell his friend he didn’t always need to defend him, but the moment before his fingers made contact, he suddenly hesitated as he remembered what was hidden underneath the sleeve of his sweater.

His heart clenched and anger washed over him once more at the reminder of one of the words the Blacks had branded his friend with; the very insult Dursley had chosen to use against him.

Of course Sirius took offence to that word being used to one of his friends and would step up to defend him; his friend would never let an insult to one of them slide.

“Thank you,” swallowing his intended words, he let his hand fall back down.

“He’s wrong, you know,” intense grey eyes met his own green ones as he turned. “You aren’t.”

“I know and neither are you.”

Sirius’ eyes softened as he looked up to Remus. “You’re an idiot.”

“Siri?” Closing his eyes as calloused fingers reached out to caress the forming scars, Remus swallowed at the soft voice. “Why exactly am I an idiot?”

“Because you worry too much about things,” rolling his eyes, Sirius pulled back again. “I’m not upset that he used that specific word, I’m pissed that he had the nerve to insult you at all while he doesn’t even know you.”

“I’ve been insulted far worse over the years.”

“And have I not made every single one of them pay if you didn’t deserve it?”

“You did,” warmth spread through him as he realised that was true and this time he did reach out to curl his fingers around Sirius’, squeezing softly. “You’re always looking out for me.”

“That’s what friends do, isn’t it? I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to prevent these from ever being made, even if they won’t be as noticeable once they’ve scarred properly."

“Better me than you,” he immediately countered, thinking of the many scars already littering his friend’s body. “And you did everything you could to heal...”

“What do you think you are doing!” The shrill shriek interrupting him made them both jump and Remus quickly stepped away from Sirius, flushing as he realised what their linked hands must have looked like to outsiders not familiar with them.

Sirius however simply turned to frown at Petunia’s disapproving expression. “None of your business. What do you want?”

“It is my business to know what you are doing in my house,” Petunia snapped. “I don’t want any funny business here.”

“Then you should have asked your friends to help clean this house,” Sirius scoffed in obvious disdain. “Oh wait, you don’t seem to have any and since your fiancé is a worthless pile of dung, Lily asked us for help. But if you don’t want our magic to help you out then that can be arranged and we’ll only clean out half the house for Lily and leave the rest for you to do on your own.”

Sirius turned to leave at the same time Lily’s bedroom door opened again and she appeared through it, catching the terror spreading over Petunia’s face; although Remus wasn’t quite sure if it was because Sirius had clearly misunderstood her meaning or because of the threat he was obviously more than ready to follow up on.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your sister is even more uptight than Pince. I was just talking with Sirius, but you’d have thought I was snogging the living daylight out of him with how she reacted,” Remus answered before Sirius could speak, enjoying the way Petunia gaped in utter shock and Sirius glanced at him confused.

“As much as I would love to see that happening, I don’t think this is the time or place for that.”

“Lily!” Even though he had called it out over himself, Remus still felt a flush spread as he spotted James grinning from behind Lily.

“I should hope you’d be asking my permission before you make any kind of move on my brother, Lupin, or I’d be forced to kick your arse.”

“I...”

Ignoring their teasing, Sirius turned to Lily. “Your irksome hag excuse of a sister was trying to say something, but due to the banshee like sound she produced, I didn’t quite catch her intended meaning beyond that she might prefer to do the work alone?”

It took all Remus had to keep his face neutral at Sirius’ biting words, realising the other was at the last threads of his patience for Lily’s sister and Petunia flushed deep red in either anger or humiliation, but kept silent under the gaze of freezingly hard grey eyes.

“Petunia?” There was a flash of something in Lily’s eyes, but she didn’t comment on his choice of words as she turned to her sister. “What does he mean about doing it alone?”

“I….I just wanted to ask him if he would be willing to keep an eye out for Mum’s wedding dress. Vernon and I couldn’t find it and I want the veil for my wedding as it’s been worn by the family for four generations,” Petunia managed to stammer out, tensing back as Sirius shifted.

“Then you should go for glasses as it was in pain sight in your mother’s closet, it’s where I put it myself two days ago after cleaning out the storage and told your oaf of a boyfriend as much,” Sirius’ tone was calm but snippy as he ignored her obvious discomfort or even tried to be tactful. “There was no veil included and the dress itself has been damaged by what I assume were mice or moths.”

“I...”

“I left it on the master bedroom floor so Lily can have a look at it to decide if she wants to keep it and possible fix it, or give it to you,” he continued on, his sharp gaze daring Petunia to object but it seemed she was frozen in place.

“I’ll go take a look, will you keep an eye out for the veil while cleaning?” Reaching out to squeeze his shoulder, Lily smiled at him. “It should be in an old looking brown box.”

“Of course, no problem,” the warm smile Sirius answered with faded as piercing cold eyes slid back to Petunia, making the woman flinch. “That is, if your sister agrees to our presence, else we’ll leave her to it.”

“I….yes...t-thank you f-for your help,” it was hilarious to see pure terror enter her eyes at the thought of having to do all the work alone and she hurried away without another word.

“Has she been giving you trouble?” sighing at the sight of her retreating sister, Lily turned to Sirius.

“You know it’s nothing I can’t handle. She’s no less unpleasant than usual,” smiling reassuringly, he pulled her into his side. “We truly were just talking for a moment before joining Peter in the attic.”

“I wish she could just act normally, but I suppose that’s too much to ask,” leaning into his embrace, Lily kissed his cheek. “If she truly causes trouble...”

“I’ll handle it without attempting to strangle her,” he hummed as James pulled both of them close, making Remus feel uncomfortably like an outsider at the affectionate display before they separated again and Sirius reached out to caress his brother’s cheek. “It’s fine, truly.”

“Else you’re coming to get us,” James’ eyes narrowed as Sirius only laughed before making his way up to the attic, grabbing Remus’ arm as he made to follow.

“What was going on?”

“Nothing, Sirius handled it,” nodding, Remus tried to give a reassuring smile, but it didn’t work half as good on James as Sirius’ did as the other looked at him unconvinced.

“If either of them try anything...”

“He’ll kick both of their arses with his eyes closed before I’ll even be able to move,” pausing as it occurred to him that it might not be what James wanted to hear, he shrugged. “But once I have, I’ll come warn you so you can kick their arses, too.”

Squeezing his biceps in acceptance, James followed Lily to the master bedroom without another word and shaking his head at the overprotective behaviour, Remus made his own way up to the attic.

“Rem, come look at what I found!” Peter exclaimed from the cupboard he was emptying out, holding up a few of what looked like playing cards as Sirius was looking through the rest.

“What are those?”

“Football Trading Cards; they’re the Muggle British sport variant of Chocolate Frog cards.”

Remus assumed the explanation was for Sirius’ sake as he knew very well what they were, but he couldn’t help but smile at their friend’s excitement as he was positively glowing as he showed them to Sirius. “They’re from last season, Lily’s dad got them all; even the ones I am still missing.”

“I’m sure that if you ask, you can have them,” chuckling at the beam spreading over Peter’s face at Sirius’ words, Remus moved to one of the still closed cupboards and from the corner of his eyes he could see Sirius do the same.

“Remember, no magic.”

“Right.”

They worked in silence for a period until a sudden muffled squeak from Sirius made them both look up to see most of Sirius’ upper body disappear into a high cupboard, the tips of his shoes dangling above the ground.

“What in Merlin’s name are you doing?” Peter peered into the dark space Sirius had disappeared into. “Wouldn’t it be easier to remove the rest of the drawers instead of doing it like this?”

“I slipped,” came the muffled reply and he coughed as his movement clearly blew up dust, making Remus raise an eyebrow.

“Slipped? On what?” Coming forward, he noticed the dark-haired boy had wiggled his way in the place of a missing drawer to reach the bottom of the cupboard.

“Probably over this cardboard,” Peter crouched down to investigate a piece of cardboard laying on the ground by Sirius’ feet. “There is mould forming on it so it’s not surprising he slipped. Are you all right?”

“Some bruises, no doubt. I can’t…..” there was some more wiggling and Sirius’ shirt rid up as he tried to free himself so Remus took a hold of his hips to try and pull him back; but it was immediately clear he wouldn’t be getting out like that as Sirius yelped in pain.

“Let me grab my wand,” reaching into his pocket for his wand, Remus paused at Sirius’ immediately protest. “Why can’t I use magic to help you? We’re at the attic.”

“There are no curtains or big enough pieces of furniture here to hide the use of magic from the nosy neighbour from next door,” a bit of leg wiggling made more of Sirius’ body disappear into the cupboard and it amazed Remus that his friend could fit into the tiny space so easily yet couldn’t get out of it. “If I can just get rid of this junk...then I can…..”

The rest of his words were drowned out by the sound of something breaking inside the cupboard.

“Noisy neighbour?”

“There’s a woman who has been following our every movement at every window she can,” Peter told him so turning discreetly as if to turn to Peter, Remus’ eyes immediately found a woman standing at the attic window of the next house; peering in unashamed.

“Privacy is clearly overrated,” frowning at the sight, he leaned closer to Peter’s side to peer into the darkness. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to...can you give me a light?”

“I saw a flash light earlier,” hurrying back to one of the boxes, Peter retrieved the flash light, turning it on and shining into the dark space beside Sirius’ side. “It’s a mess down there, isn’t it?”

“Thanks. Yeah, the bottoms of the drawers have been destroyed by mice and most things fell to the bottom. Could you shine a little to the right so I can hide the flashes of my wand as I Vanish some stuff.”

“Sure, but why?” Peter’s shining masked the slight flashes of Sirius’ wand well enough.

“Because there is something sharp preventing me from getting out the way I got in and I can’t get enough grip to just break the side out with all this junk in the way.”

“How are you even fitting in there in the first place, that space is tiny,” James’ voice greeted them as he and Lily joined them; James coming close to examine his brother’s position.

“He slipped on a piece of mouldy cardboard.”

“Hmm, and why didn’t you just break him free magically once you realised he was stuck?”

“Nosy neighbour,” indicating over his shoulder, Remus blinked as Lily honestly to god growled.

“Mrs McKensie is a leech.”

“Can you pass that screwdriver?”

“Screw… never mind.”

As Remus watched, Sirius and James did some complicated manoeuvring to pass a screwdriver between them and James flinched as he pulled back his arm, revealing a bloody gash and he redirected Peter’s beam of light to the sides.

“There’s bended nails sticking out of the sides, they’re bend inwards so you wouldn’t have felt them going in but they bloody hurt when trying to pull back,” he told Sirius, crouching down beside the cupboard and, without any need to communicate, stabbed into the wood and began to wiggle the wood to pry it open while Sirius was clearly pushing from the inside.

In no time at all the two managed to loosen the wood enough for James to break it free completely; all of them coughing as dust flew up.

“I thought cats were the flexible ones, not dogs,” grinning, James wiped his glasses clean.

“Well, you’re the one who always claims I act like a cat,” Sirius looked way too relaxed for someone dangling halfway upside down in Remus’ opinion.

“True,” consenting, James eyed him critically. “Want help getting out of there?”

“That would be much appreciated,” reaching out, Sirius let James carefully pull him towards him, folding into himself without a problem as he sort of rolled into a ball to land safely in James’ arms.

“James is right, you should’ve been a cat instead,” snickering, Peter tried to brush off some of the dust of them both as both boys remained in place until Sirius got his bearing.

“Meow,” grinning up to Peter, Sirius closed his eyes as James ruffled his short hair to get rid of the dust before accepting Lily’s hand to rise to his feet while Remus helped James up.

Allowing James to check him over for any injuries, Sirius stretched. “Do we keep cleaning manually or can we chase the nosy peeping tom away?”

“Leave her to me,” moving to the window, Lily made some obscene gestures Remus never would’ve expected a girl to ever use, though it was quite effective as the noisy neighbour looked scandalised before disappearing.

“Where did you learn that?”

“Dad taught me, it’s what he always used to chase her off.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means piss off,” conjuring a piece of black cloth; Sirius covered the window with it before turning to see them all staring at him. “What?”

“How in Merlin’s name do you know what it means?”

“Because her father used it in traffic any time another driver was misbehaving. He taught it to me because in his opinion it was a gesture every good British driver should know.”

“I can’t believe Dad taught you rude gestures,” Lily choked out a laugh. “Actually, no, I totally can. It sounds exactly like Dad to do something like that.”

“If it makes you feel better, he told me it’s incredibly offensive and to only ever use it when driving,” in unison, Sirius and James began shrinking various items so Remus and Peter stepped back to watch them work as they seemed to know instinctively which items to keep while Lily went through the items put aside.

“Hey Lil, what about this?” Pulling forth an old fashioned playpen, Sirius grinned. “Might be useful for the future.”

“Gosh, I didn’t even know they still had that,” smiling, Lily let her fingers caress the old but sturdy wood. “The wood is splintered, though.”

Inspecting the area indicated, Sirius shrugged. “I can fix that without a problem if you would like to keep it for your own offspring. I know Mum and Dad kept James’ box, but it would be wise to have one in different rooms and it might be nice to have something from your own childhood for your own children.”

“It would be, but I’m sure Petunia will want to have it, too.”

Snorting in disdain, Sirius shrunk the playpen while James moved to a corner. “She’s got enough.”

“We’re also taking the rocking chair,” James announced as he pulled a chair out.

“I can’t remember ever having seen this before,” frowning, Lily inspected it. “It’s in terrible condition.”

“We’re magical, not much is in too terrible a condition for our magic to fix,” grinning, James beaconed Sirius closer. “What do you think?”

“It’s not that bad, the wood isn’t too badly splintered but it could use a good sanding and a new paint job. What do you want it for?”

“For you to sit in after a bad night whenever you’re staying with us and we’re not available for some reason,” the soft words made Sirius look up. “You love the old chair in Dad’s work room so I’d like to have one at our future house as well. And it would be a nice thing to sit in with any possible future children as well.”

Watching Sirius inspect the chair more closely, Remus couldn’t help but smile wryly as he knew James had a point. Whenever their friend had a severe nightmare, it usually helped calm him down and fall back asleep more easily if the one holding him was rocking him lightly.

“Will you actually have time to work on it, though? Between work, classes and preparing for exams, you already have so little free time,” Peter noted worriedly. “Besides, don’t you need to focus on your commission?”

“We’ll see. We can play around with it when we have the time and else we can always work on it after graduation,” speaking up before Sirius could, James twirled his wand between his fingers; shrinking the chair at Sirius’ nod.

“How is your commission going anyway? You were having trouble figuring out how to make her move naturally, weren’t you?”

“It’s getting better, though oil will never be my preferred painting method. The layers are as good as done so I only need to add the last magical features,” frowning, Sirius turned to Peter. “I’ve managed to get Abe to show me several memories of her so I could get a feel for how she acted and moved; though her speech will be limited. I just hope I’ll be able to do her memory justice.”

“Abe will be thrilled regardless of how much she can move around, she looks amazing,” there was a proud smile on James’ face as he squeezed Sirius’ shoulder. “And your secret addition of linking the Hog’s Head tunnel to the portrait will secure the passage from being misused.”

“Wait…..you’ve seen the portrait?” shooting James a disbelieving look at his nod, Remus pouted at Sirius.

“Why is he allowed to see it and we’re not?”

“Brother privileges,” wiggling his eyebrows, James grinned, but Peter frowned.

“What do you mean, keep the passage from being misused?”

“The Come and Go room created the passage for me to enter the Hog’s Head without notice, but after discussing it with Peeves, Hogwarts agreed on making a permanent passage that will appear in times of true need so that should the war come to Hogwarts itself, students can be evacuated through the passage and find refuge in the Hog’s Head.”

“That’s….so the passage won’t always be there?”

“It’s not even there now,” James said. “It only appears when asked for, like the room itself does.”

“But, how would anyone know to ask for it, then?”

“Lucky find and in case of true emergency, the House Elves will inform the teachers so they can evacuate students,” Sirius turned to Lily. “Is there anything else you want to keep?”

“No, Petunia already took most of what I might have wanted to have,” accepting the change of subject, Lily looked around before shaking her head. “Unless there is something you guys would like to have?”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Could I perhaps have these collective cards?” Holding up his collection, Peter grinned as Lily nodded. “Thanks. And you could demand to get some of the things she took that you are interested in, couldn’t you?”

“Not without causing a bigger fight than I’m willing to have over them,” sighing, Lily Vanished a few more items. “It’s just not worth the arguments any more. I have a few items that I really wanted to have and that will be enough.”

“We could always steal what you want back when they are asleep,” James suggested as he shrank the box of stuff to keep to pocket it.

“It’s all right, thanks to Sirius I have their wedding rings and some of Mum’s favourite jewellery as well as some other personal items and that’s enough.”

“I’ve put aside some other things I think you might want to keep, you can check them back home without your sister noticing you’ve got them,” Sirius picked up a box of donations and following his example, they all picked up a box to move them to the van.

“You have everything you want to keep in your room?”

“Yes, we already brought everything that could be given away down and I don’t want anything else from the kitchen so anything Petunia hasn’t taken can be boxed as well.”

“Is that twat going to do anything useful today, or is he just going to hang around?” James asked as he placed the items that had been selected to be kept in her room with the rest.

“Dursley left almost an hour ago, looking ready to wet himself,” Peter revealed as he returned back inside. “What did you say to him to make him look so terrified?”

“Nothing important, but it doesn’t matter if he left or not as he was utterly useless,” Sirius said before turning to the door. “Petunia, the kitchen is yours to clean out while we’ll do the garage and living room for Lily. Is there anything you want from the living room, Lil?”

Petunia seemed surprised that he’d heard her coming when she appeared moments later, tensing at Sirius’ voice but Lily didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m not sure, I’ll go have a look. There is nothing in the garage that I want to keep, did you Petunia?”

N-no.”

“Then you can just Vanish everything not worth taking to charity,” Lily glanced out of the window. “How much more can we fit in there before the neighbours will become suspicious?”

“They won’t,” reassuring her, Sirius smiled. “Let’s get back to work so we can get everything to charity before dark.”


	8. Chapter 8

In loving memory of my dearest Mum; my greatest supporter and the sweetest mother I could’ve ever asked for. I hope you are resting peacefully now; June 18th 1955 – December 11th 2020.

This last chapter is for you.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Working together, it took them no time at all to clean the rest of the house up and James summoned two of his parents' House-elves to take everything Lily wanted to keep to Potter Manor to be kept there until they would move into their own place.

A little bit of magic from Sirius ensured the house was stripped bare of wallpaper and carpets so Remus volunteered to do one last sweep of the place while the others made their way to the minivan already, coming back downstairs just in time to overhear Petunia sneer at Lily.

“If you had been here, then I wouldn’t have had to arrange everything alone.”

“You really dare to put this on me?” Lily choked out. “You didn’t even tell me you put the house up for sale. I should have heard it from you, not learn about it through Sirius.”

“And how did he know? Has he been spying on me?” Petunia looked around suspiciously, as if expecting to see bugs on the walls.

“Don’t be absurd, he was notified by the real estate office when the house came up for sale.”

“Why would one of your lot be contacting a real estate agency? And why would he be notified if our house came up for sale?”

“Who do you think paid off the mortgage? His name was pulled up during the financial check when you put the house up for sale so they contacted him to request information,” Lily snapped right back. “The point is, I shouldn’t have had to learn through him that you are selling our childhood home.”

“What did you expect me to do? Wait until you finally come back from that freak school of yours to get anything done? I have a life in Surrey and can’t handle upholding two houses.”

“You haven’t lifted a linger as you know fully well that Sirius arranged for a cleaner to uphold the house until we were ready to deal with it, I told you that. And you could have written me or used the phone number I’ve given you for cases of emergency.”

“I won’t have any of that freakiness around me any longer,” hissing hatefully, Petunia crossed her arms. “And I especially have no desire to come into contact with any of your freaky acquaintances.”

“You know it’s Sirius’ phone; one Dad gave him specifically to be able to be in contact with the Muggle world and allow them to be in contact with us. I told you that when I gave you the number.”

“I’m not calling one of your friends; they’re all freaks like you. What were you thinking, bringing that lot here...to our childhood home!”

“Oh please, Mum and Dad loved having James and Sirius over and either way, you should be grateful they offered to help, especially since your so called friends told you they were too busy.”

“By using that freakiness! Don’t think I haven’t noticed that delinquent using it. I’ve seen him draw that thing of his and he has been absolutely terrible to me and Vernon since Mum and Dad’s passing.”

“He has been trying to treat you as neutral as possible, so if he became cross then you have deserved it.”

“How dare you, I am your sister; your blood! He’s….”

“Family.”

“He is in no way related to us!” Petunia sniffed in disdain, as if she couldn’t believe the nerve Lily had to even suggest otherwise.

“You may be blood; but you are a poor excuse for family,” bristling, Lily looked the picture of lividness as her eyes shot fire. “Mum and Dad thought of Sirius as family, even Gran through of him as a grandson and when I marry James, he will officially become my brother-in-law and I won’t tolerate you badmouthing him.”

“Why...I have never...” huffing scandalised at Lily’s declaration, Petunia seemed unable to form words as Lily continued.

“When nobody could reach you after the accident, they called Sirius and he immediately took me to the hospital and spend half the night trying to reach you so you’d be informed as soon as possible. He was there for me every step of the way and helped arrange everything for the funeral when you shoved everything off on me because you were too busy with work,” she bit out. “He paid all of the expenses their insurance didn’t cover and took care of any outstanding bills that came up at the Notary office so we wouldn’t have to worry about money or going into debt.”

Remus hadn’t known about any of that and although he wondered why it had been Sirius, not James who had taken care of everything as Lily’s partner, it really wasn’t his business and realising he was essentially eavesdropping, he hurriedly stepped forward to make his presence known.

“He ensured the house has been stripped bare, called in a favour so he could fix the leaking roof and other ailments so the price wouldn’t go down with the original taxing and took another sweep to ensure all is ready for the inspection before the sale is finalised,” although Petunia flinched as she noticed him, Lily didn’t even spare him a glance as she glared.

“Sirius has been more of a sibling to me than you have been for a very long time and I love him as one so I won’t tolerate you insulting him. The house is as good as ready, the rest is yours to clean. I will see the papers of the Notary arrive so that I can sign off as well as have my half of the money transferred into my account.”

“And how do you expect the notary or real estate agent to be able to reach you?” Her sister’s eyes widened nearly comically. “You’re not sending them by those...”

“I notified them that they could reach me through Sirius’ contact information as I’ve registered myself to his address so my papers will be sent there.”

“You can’t live with a boy without marrying them, that’s unethical; what would the neighbours say?!”

“I couldn’t care less,” clearly done with the conversation, Lily ignored Petunia’s undignified angry shriek and turned on her heels to brush past Remus. “We’re done here.”

Not wanting to be left alone with the pissed off sister, Remus hurried after her; Sirius and James looked up from where they’d just been closing the van doors.

“What...”

“Don’t,” Lily bit out as James made to move towards her. “Let’s go.”

Without argument, James slid in the passenger’s side while Peter and Remus took the back seats so that the angry red-head could take the seat between Sirius and James. 

He winced as she unfolded the map rather more harshly than necessary while Sirius mutely started the car and Peter squeaked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

James’ hand found it’s way to Lily’s knee, resting there softly and the mere touch seemed to do the trick to relax her somewhat; her shoulders relaxing as she studied the map.

“Would you just relax,” James asked irritated as Peter squeaked once more and grabbed Remus at the first turn at her direction. “You act like he’s going to crash at any moment.”

“I’m so sorry for being nervous to be in a car with a Pure-Blood wizard,” Peter snapped, eyes wide and grip tightening as Sirius picked up speed to move in with the rest of the traffic as they reached the main road.

“You do know I actually have my driver’s licence, right?” Their dark-haired driver didn’t look up from the icy road, slowing down a little as the car before them did.

“Provisional driver’s licence,” Lily reminded him as Remus pushed Peter’s hand off his biceps. “It’ll be a few more months before you can exchange it for a real one.”

“I fail to see the difference. I got my licence legally, without any magic involved and a licence is a licence.”

“Technically that is not entirely true. Just because someone has managed to get their driver’s licence doesn’t mean they should actually ever be on a road,” trying to peel Peter’s hands away from his biceps as he once more grabbed on, Remus winced as three identical glares were shot his way. “Sorry.”

“And it’s not like you have a lot of experience driving regardless of having gotten your licence,” Peter latched onto his words.

“He’s a better driver than a lot of other people I know,” brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, Lily glanced at the map. “Take a right here.”

“Your dad was a good teacher,” the compliment at her parents address caused a little smile to appear on her lips; lightening her mood enormously and she rolled her eyes as Peter squeaked when Sirius switched gears as the cars before him slowed down even more.

“Would you just relax?” Grumbling, Sirius glanced at him from the rear view mirror. “And put your seatbelt on, I didn’t conjure those for show.”

Blinking, Remus noticed that all three of the others were wearing their seatbelt and automatically he reached behind him for his own while Peter just stared at Sirius.

“Mum never uses the seatbelts,” he said. “Said they are restricting and hinder her movements.”

“If your Mum wants to risk splashing your brains open on the front window then that’s her choice, but I’d rather not be scraping pieces of your brain tissue from the busted window to put you back to one piece again should I have to hit the brakes suddenly, so put it on.”

Squeaking again at the morbid thought, Peter scrambled to grab his seatbelt and put it on and Remus carefully pulled back as far as he could so he would not be grabbed in fright again.

“Morbid….seriously Sirius, did you need to be that detailed?” Grimacing, James looked at Lily’s map, pointing to a line. “Shouldn’t we make a right turn there?”

“No, stay away from my map, Potter,” she slapped his hands away playfully. “We need to make the second turn right and then go left.”

“You know, I could also just keep following the signs,” Sirius dryly indicated to a very obvious sign alerting them of a nearby Red Cross collective point.

“Or you could indeed do that,” folding up the map, Lily tossed it onto the dashboard. “You could have said something earlier, you know?”

“But you looked so adorable frowning over that map,” the teasing was enough to receive a half-hearted glare from Lily, earning a full grin in return. The car pulled to a stop before a fence minutes later, Sirius rolling down his window as a man hurried over in the snow.

“Hello, I called earlier about the stuff for charity from the Evans house?” Lily spoke up.

“Through the gate and on the right, you can unload in box two,” following the directions, Sirius parked beside a big garage and between the five of them, it took them no time to empty out the van without anyone being any the wiser that there was more in it than there should be.

James undid the Feather-light charms and they all bundled up again inside the van.

“Do we drive all the way back or just until we are out of sight?” A non-verbal Hot-Air charm quickly chased away the chill clinging to their clothes.

“If you drive, we could stop by that Chinese take-out place we saw on the way here before Apparating home,” James suggested as he tugged his gloves off and pocketed them.

“It is a little early, but dinner doesn’t actually sound so bad,” checking his watch, Remus yawned. “My parents aren’t expecting me back before tomorrow anyway.”

“Are you sure you want to join us?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Mum made plans for some kind of lady’s night and Dad’s dealing with a lot of backlog at work so I’d be alone anyway.”

“If you guys are willing to help, we could try to degnome the garden after dinner.”

“Really Siri, haven’t we done enough work today?” Sighing at the simple shrug, Remus leaned back in his chair.

“I’m sure you won’t get bitten again and think of how fun it’ll be to watch Lily have her first go at it.”

Lily raised an eyebrow. “Should I be worried?”

“Not really, just make sure you aren’t very gentle or they’ll bite,” laughing at Remus’ glare, James leaned in close to stage whisper to her. “Sirius got bitten on his first attempt as well.”

“You didn’t know how to degnome a garden either?”

“Nope, I was horrified to see James grab one, swinging it around by its leg before throwing it as far as he could over the fence. But they are nasty little buggers and deserve the treatment and anyway, it’s kinder than releasing a Jarvey on them.”

“Jarvey?”

“Think of an overgrown ferret and Muggle rabbit hunting,” Remus advised her.

“That’s barbaric!”

“Exactly, so we try to do it by hand whenever we get the chance,” running a hand through his hair, James grabbed the map to put it into his jacket. “We could make it a competition again.”

“We might. Send a message to Mum that we’ll pick up enough food for all of us and are on our way home,” Sirius instructed as he parked and Remus was surprised to see they were in front of the Chinese restaurant, having driven there without a single direction.

“Actually, we’ve got to go to the cinema after dinner,” Peter grinned. “It’s the twenty-seventh today.”

“Okay….what is on the twenty-seventh?”

Gaping at their confusion, Peter’s face fell. “You don’t remember what film starts playing today?”

“Film?” While none of the other three seemed to know what he was talking about, Remus’ mind was abruptly jogged.

“Erm...I don’t think they know. You called me after your cousin managed to get you the reservations, but I’m not sure you actually ever mentioned it to them,” the look of horror crossing over Peter’s face would’ve been hilarious, if Remus didn’t feel so acutely guilty for having completely forgotten.

“Mentioned what?” James asked.

“My cousin managed to get me reservations for this upcoming film that’s been a huge hype in America already. It’s got space ships, laser swords and it was really, really hard to get tickets for us all,” as his wild gestures, both James and Remus stepped back to avoid being hit.

“I don’t know Pete….”

“Please James? We’ve done a lot of work today so deserve a bit of relaxation.”

“It’s not my call, Pete,” hesitating, James turned to Lily.

“What time does it play?”

“At eight,” he patted his eyes at her and sighing, she gave in.

“Oh, why not. It sounds like it could be fun and it would be a waste if it’s truly that difficult to get tickets,” she pierced Peter with a sharp look. “But you are paying for your own snacks and we are degnoming that garden first thing tomorrow morning, mister.”

“Yes!” Even as Peter cheered, they left the car and while James used his mirror to inform his parents of their plans, Lily and Remus provided a look out to ensure it was safe for Sirius to shrink the van back into the toy it had been.

Unanimously it was decided James and Sirius were on order duty, Peter scurrying after them while Lily and Remus took a seat in the waiting area to be out of the cold.

“Thank you for your help today and I’m sorry you had to hear that conversation with my sister,” Lily softly said as she watched their friends look over the menu with Peter hovering besides James.

“We were happy to help,” smiling faintly, Remus shuffled uncomfortably. “Is your sister always like that?”

“She was actually quite calm today, normally she bristles much more,” sighing, she pushed her hair back. “I’m sorry she treated you so terribly.”

“It’s not your fault that you have a lousy sister,” huffing out a laugh, they watched Sirius speak to an employer before handing over a bag of krupuk to Peter, who happily tore into it while making his way to them again. “You know we are going to eat in a little bit, right?”

Peter’s response was incomprehensible as he had his mouth stuffed full and both of them grimaced.

“Pete,” sighing deeply, Remus tried to take the bag from him, but Peter quickly danced out of reach. “Leave something for us, will you?”

“Nuh, Sirius said this one’s for me and if you keep being so mean, I won’t share,” sticking out his tongue, Peter turned away from him as Sirius and James approached. “Do you want some?”

“Sure,” picking out two pieces; Sirius passed one to James before eating the other one himself as they took seats and Remus rolled his eyes as Peter stuck out his tongue at him.

Humming in approval at the taste; James stretched out in his chair. “What’s this film we’re going to see called?”

“Star Wars, it begins playing today!”

“After Christmas? Don’t big films usually start playing before the holidays to ensure more people will go see it?” Remus asked.

“Well, technically it came out in May already in America and it won’t come out everywhere here until January, but it’s already playing in two theatres in London now!”

Immediately Remus’ stomach dropped as Sirius and James both tensed; though it was James who turned to Peter incredulous.

“London? You want us to travel to London for a film?”

“Yes? It’s not like we can’t Apparate the distance.”

“What theatre?”

“Leicester Square Theatre.”

“Merlin, Pete, it’s like you’ve specifically chosen the worst location possible,” James ran a hand through his hair.

“What’s wrong with Leicester Square Theatre?” Confused, Lily looked at her boyfriend, who shot her a confused look in return.

“You don’t….”

“It’ll be fine, James,” Sirius’ soft voice made his brother shake his head.

“It’s not fine, you really got to stop being so self-sacrificing.”

“I’m not,” reaching out to rest a hand on James’ arm, Sirius squeezed lightly. “It will be fine. How much are the tickets?”

“I...I didn’t think about that when my cousin told me he could reserve tickets for us. I can cancel if you want me to?” Peter bit his lip, looking guilty.

“No, ticket prices?”

“2,20 pounds,” immediately Peter held his hands up defensively as both Lily and Remus’ heads snapped to him at that price. “I know it’s not the cheapest, but it’ll be well worth it.”

Sighing, Sirius nodded. “I’ll pay for the tickets for us all, but as Lily said; you’re responsible for your own snacks.”

“I...are you sure?”

“We’re going straight home after the film is over, no lingering,” James clenched his teeth, looking up when their number was called out and he and Sirius made their way to the counter to pick up their order.

“Okay, what’s wrong with Leicester?” Keeping her voice down, Lily looked between the two of them.

“The Black’s ancestral home is located close by and several of Sirius’ closest blood relatives live nearby there as well. It’s testing fate to go anywhere near there if we don’t absolutely have to.”

“Because they might cause trouble should they recognise him,” nodding in understanding, Lily glanced at the re-approaching dark-haired boys. “Will it truly be all right to go there?”

“It’s unlikely any of those lunatics will go anywhere near a Muggle location like that and even so, there are five of us,” James still didn’t look happy, but had obviously spoken about it more with Sirius while collecting their bags and Remus and Lily hurriedly took a few of them as they were absolutely laden. “But you’re not leaving my side while we’re out.”

Accepting the answer, they made their way outside so they could find a deserted alley to Apparate home from, so they could have dinner at the Potter household before making their way to the cinema.

It was more crowded than Remus had suspected it might be, Peter’s insistence of the hype around the film clearly was not exaggerated and it was lucky he was so tall or he’d have lost sight of his friends multiple times in the crowd.

Lily, James and Sirius were checking out the film posters on display and Remus wasn’t entirely sure if the three of them holding hands was a compromise to James’ need to keep both of them in sight or because it prevented them from being separated while they waited for Peter to return with the pre-ordered tickets his cousin had apparently with him already so they’d not have to get into any line.

His ears picked up Peter’s voice moments before his friends did, his mousy-haired friend saying goodbye to his cousin.

“I got them! Did you know the reserved section is booked out until March already?!” His mouth ran a mile a minute as he hurried back to them, handing over the tickets to James.

“How can something new be that popular already?” Lily asked as she accepted the tickets to safely tuck them into her shoulder bag.

“It made one and a half million pounds on it’s opening weekend in America,” Peter was almost bursting with excitement.

“Mum told me there’s been a lot of promotion material spread; magazines dedicating pages to the film,” the bounciness of his friend was somewhat contagious and Remus smiled. “Shall we go order something to eat before we go in?”

His suggestion was met with affirmative nods and they made their way through the crowd so pick up snacks and drinks so that they would be ready to enjoy the film Peter was so excited about and who knew, maybe it really was as good as Peter proclaimed it would be.


End file.
